


School Kids, Drug Dealers (The Kids Aren't Alright)

by LaughingThalia



Series: What Makes A Family Your Family. [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: (but not alcohol), (except it's Bludhaven), Alcoholics Anonymous, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, BAMF Women, Big Brother Dick Grayson, Blüdhaven, Catwoman is still around as are most of the villains, Childhood Friends, Corruption, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Dead Robins, Dick Grayson is a Police Officer, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Dealing, Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, Drugs, Enemies to Friends, Friendship, Gotham City Police Department, Gun Violence, Male-Female Friendship, Military kids, Organized Crime, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Police, Police Officer Dick Grayson, Police Procedural, Police corruption, Recreational Drug Use, Strong Female Characters, Superheroes still exist, Support Group, The Bat family do not exist, The Waynes exist, Underage Drug Use, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power, no spell check we die like mne
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-05-18 09:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 44,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14850569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: Officer Dick Grayson and Amy Rohrbach investigate the death of a teenaged boy, Sammy Dexton, and find themselves shoved head first into the world of a new street drug, danger and intrigue.Driving back to the station was a silent affair. As they waited for the lights to turn green Dick asked “Does it ever get easier?”“Does what get easier?” Amy questioned.“Dead kids.”Amy was silent for a moment “No.”





	1. 1-2-7-5-0

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Blüdhaven Heights High School, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 11/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

Being in a normal high school was weird for Dick. It occurred to him that he'd never really been inside a regular school seeing as he'd gone to Gotham's finest Academy for the richest folk and then never thought about high school ever again, so it was weird walking down the empty hallway with Amy by his side, small talking with the office lady who was assorting them to the principal's office.

Dick decided not to comment his observation, Amy didn't know he was technically rich as fuck and on their way to investigate the death of a 15 year old kid didn't seem like the right time to bring it up so he kept his mouth shut.

When they passed the kid's locker it was easy to figure out, his locker was covered head to toe in messages and drawings and there were flowers and cards all around it. The receptionist, Linda Dick thinks he remember her being called, pointed and said rather sadly “Sammy was such a nice boy, he would always say good morning to us in the office. It's dreadful what happened to him.”

Amy and Dick agreed sombrely. “Grayson, I'm going to talk to the Principal, why don't you-” she gestured at the locker.

Dick nodded “On it.” Linda handed him a piece of paper with the combination and then he broke away from the two women.

 

1-2-7-5-0

 

It felt weird. To open his locker. The kid had had the locker the whole time he'd come to this school which meant it was unlikely anyone else had opened it in those years and here was Dick, coming in and upsetting that. He swallowed thickly as he opened the locker. The hinges creaked loudly in the silence of the halls that were usually packed with life. A few bouquets were in the way so to avoid damaging them, he carefully moved them to the side and opened it further.

The smell of Lynx Africa (Axe bodyspray) hit his nose and a small smile graced his face, of course a teenage boy would coat himself in Lynx. Some things never changed even 4 years later in a much poorer school than the one he had attended. The lingering scent of bodyspray wasn't the only thing the kid had left behind. Sam Dexton. Sammy. There was a magazine cover that had a bikini clad women on the front; there was his class schedule below it, highlighted and colour co-ordinated.

His books were still in there. AP Calc, modern history, English literature. There was a copy of some new YA fantasy, thriller, dystopian future novel. There was also a poster of the same book at the back of his locker, it was probably his favourite book. The bookmark was only half way through. He never got to finish it.

Dick reached in slowly to grab the book. It felt like he was disturbing a ghost. This kid, this teenage boy, was _dead._ This book was like a metaphor for his life, never finished, never completed, forever wondering what would happen next. And then something fell out of the book.

Slowly Dick reached down and picked up a tiny zip lock bag with something in it, white powder. Dick sighed and he mumbled “Don't tell me the kid was doing coke.”

Amy, Linda and Principal Wheeler chose that moment to walk into the hall where Dick was, they seemed to be caught in polite conversation but they were only too glad to end it when they saw Dick.

Amy's eyes widened when she saw the tiny zip lock in his gloved hand. “Is that-”

“Unconfirmed.” Dick replied.

“Where?”

He held up the book, the bookmark still firmly in place even though the baggy had been dislodged “This book. It seems to be his favourite.”

Linda nodded “He recommended those books for my son. He really loves- loved them.”

Amy sighed “We're going to need to get that to the lab. If he overdosed-”

“He didn't show signs of overdosing.” Grayson countered.

“Maybe not on Coke, there are a lot of other drugs out there. Not all of them have the same signs.”

Dick nodded “True, you're right.”

“What else have you got?”

“Well this is it, I'm still looking.”

“What's taking so long?” Amy asked him.

Dick blushed a little “I uh- I didn't want to disturb anything too much.”

Amy decided not to comment, she had seen enough dead kid's possessions to understand how he felt, “Okay, well continue then, I'm going to interview some of the other students, join me when you're done.”

Dick nodded “Will do.”

The new trio left to go track down students who were scattered around the school and Dick remained with the ghost of a dead boy.

Dick breathed in deeply and got back to work, he moved a few more books out of the way, a really nice Nike hoodie, some spare shoes, his gym stuff as he was going through the bag he gasped. “Ah no, come on Sammy don't do this to me.” He said to the empty hallway, not realising it was no longer empty. He sighed as he pulled out what must have been a kilo more of that white powder form before. Looking at it now, it didn't seem like cocaine. It was less white and more cream, it had a different consistency and Dick had held a kilo of coke before, this felt much lighter which means this equal sized solid, giant block of powder weighed less than the same block full of cocaine. It must be a different drug which means Amy must have been right.

Then again rule number one of being a dealer was don't try your merchandise. Then again Sammy was only 15 maybe he couldn't help but try and he took it too far. The kid was only 15, he shouldn't have even had this in his locker yet alone in his system.

Dick stood up and turned around with a defeated sigh and locked eyes with a girl, she was staring at him, eyes wide and full of tears “Um.” Dick said, getting a perfect handle of the situation like a good cop would.

“Sammy was selling?”

“We don't know. I _just_ found this.”

“But that was in his locker. People don't just _have_ shit like that if they're not selling.”

“You a friend of Sam's?”

She nodded “I'm- _was_ Sammy's girlfriend.”

Dick nodded sympathetically “I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, aren't we all.”

“What's your name?” Dick asked. That seemed to get an odd reaction from her, one he understood as soon as she looked at him sideways. Sure Dick was Romani but he looked white as fuck and he was a cop and she was black and a school kid and the two usually didn't mix well. “I'm trying to help.”

Dick's not sure what he said that made her trust him or maybe she'd just decided her name wasn't the hill she would die on, because the way cops were behaving now-a-days she very likely _could_ die. “Aniyah. Aniyah Jackson.”

“It's nice to meet you Aniayah, I'm officer Dick Grayson.”

“You're Officer _Who_?!” She snorted.

Dick smirked “Richard Grayson but everyone calls me Dick.”

She laughed again “If I were you, I wouldn't allow that.”

Dick shrugged “It's a name, and I'm immune to all the jokes at this point.” Just then the bell rang and Dick's eyes widened as his focus returned to the not-kilo of not-cocaine in his hands, he quickly stuffed it back into the gym bag and since he'd searched the whole thing already set about putting everything back the way he found it, closing the locker and putting the flowers back in place.

When he got back up, the gym back still in his hand, his gloved hand, quite a crowd had gathered around him in a semi circle, some of the students looked angry at him for tampering with the locker but Aniyah seemed to have some power in this situation because she gave them a nod and they seemed much less hostile towards him. Dick guessed Aniyah must have thought he was okay. He nodded at her and she nodded back and then he went to join Amy in her student interviews, he was surprised they hadn't interviewed Aniyah first.

Before he left the area he turned around and said “Oh an Aniyah, this is an ongoing police investigation so I would appreciate it if you didn't say anything.”

She nodded “Don't worry Officer, I won't be running my mouth to nobody.”

He smiled at her and then continued on his way, when he entered the room there were a couple kids sitting outside the office, most of them boys, half of them black, the rest were white except for one Asian boy. They all looked equally sad and they were sitting in silence like the life had been drained from them.

Dick decided to wait until the current interview was over before he entered and so he waited outside with the students. Waiting outside the Principal's office, he remembered those days.

Eventually a student left, one who Dick recognised as the basket ball player from the sports trophy cabinet they'd passed on the way in. Dick gave him a quick smile and then entered the office and close the blinds.

Amy's eyebrow raised “What;s with all the cloak and dagger?” She asked as the room was plunged into relative darkness, light still flooded in from the uncovered windows.

Dick dumped the back on the table, unzipped it and pulled out the not-cocaine.

“A kilo of coke?” Amy gasped.

“No, it's not a kilo and I'm fairly certain it's not coke but it's definitely something.”

Amy took it and weighed it roughly with her hand “You're right, this is not a kilo. This is much lighter, what _is_ this?”

“No idea. However that is a problem for the lab techs to figure out, right now we're talking to students. Speaking of, have you guys spoken to Aniyah?”

“Aniyah?” Amy asked, turning to Principal Wheeler for clarification.

Wheeler looked blank for a second “Aniyah? There is no Aniyah.”

“What do you mean, I just spoke to her outside Sam's locker.”

“Aniyah's been dead for 10 years.” Wheeler said, staring at Dick, eyes wide.

Dick frowned “What?” No way had he just spoken to a ghost. He'd seen some crazy things in Gotham but for some reason they tended not to cross the bridge over into Blüdhaven.

“I'm joking, I'm joking. Yeah, honestly I forgot about Sam's girlfriend. I'm a principal not a Facebook status. I'll put her on the list for you guys and call her parents to ask for permission for the interview.”

“Much appreciated,” Amy nodded. Dick could tell she was annoyed underneath her thing layer of politeness.

Dick was glad he wasn't the only one getting angry at Wheeler. “Let's just get the next student in here.” he suggested.

The next kid, or really the first kid for Dick since he had only just arrived was Sammy's partner in the labs, “John Bryant.”

“Yes.” the kid looked nervous as fuck.

“John, you're not in trouble.” Dick assured him, trying to calm him down a bit.

“I DIDN'T KIILL HIM, I SWEAR!” he blurted out.

“Um, okay. I believe you.” Dick said, as he glanced over to Amy.

Amy shrugged “Hey John, do you know anyone who would ever want to hurt Sam or any enemies he may have?”

John squirmed in his seat. He definitely knew something. “No.”

“Really?” Amy asked again.

“Yes, I don't know anyone who would want to hurt Sammy.”

“Are you sure about that?” She questioned, definitely not buying his obvious lie.

John looked around the room, at the principal and at the cops, he was sweating profusely. He very clearly knew something. Dick wanted to tell the kid he wouldn't be in trouble but he knew better than to promise that when he didn't know what the kid had done.

Dick gave John a look, one his teachers used to give him when he lied about doing his homework and forgetting it, the look Alfred used to give him when he'd done something bad and he refused to admit it. It seemed to work because the kid immediately cracked, thank God for Alfred Pennyworth.

“Okay, okay. I do know something. Sammy came to me because I'm good at science. These guys gave him these drugs right, and they wanted him to sell them around the school, they were supposed to be super addictive so they banned Sam from trying any so he wouldn't use his own stock. And Sam sold it to a couple people but then they all got pretty sick so he asked me to figure out what it was exactly and when I told him he stopped selling it but he these guys,, they were dangerous! Sammy never told me who they were but he was scared!”

Amy nodded, jotting down the information whilst Dick, the new fangled millennial that he was, used his phone voice recorder. “Sounds gang related to me.”

Dick agreed and then turned to John “You said you figured out what the drug was. What did you find out?”

“It's mostly Whoonga but there's a bit of Scopolamine in it too.”

“What! Scopolamine! Fucking hell!” Dick exclaimed.

“What the heck are any of those drugs?” Amy asked.

Dick didn't blame Amy for not knowing, both drugs were pretty rare in the USA, “Whoonga is like this antiretroviral drug with like poisons and other stuff in there. It's really addictive and can cause all sorts of body failures. But Scopolamine is worse, it's said 1 gram can kill 20 people, no wonder those kids got sick so fast.”

Amy looked puzzled “How do you know that?”

“I know about Whoonga because it's used to cure HIV a lot in South Africa and I went on a trip there once and Russians tried to use Scopolamine as a truth serum back in the Cold War. It didn't work out too well but I learnt that in History class back in high school.”

“And you remembered a foot note form your high school history class?”

Dick shrugged “I remember it because after we learnt it a bunch of people thought it would be fun to try and make. They got caught pretty quick so again, didn't work out too well for them.”

Amy raised an eyebrow at Dick's unusual high school experience but decided not to comment on it in front of John “John, do you know it's street name?”

John frowned “Um, I think Sammy called it... Retro?”

“Anti-retro-viral.” Dick pointed out.

They finished off their interviews with the other students waiting outside. A couple people said he seemed more jumpy, more paranoid towards the end of his life but no one else seemed to know about the drugs. They didn't ask if anyone did Retro since if they did they'd become sick.

Amy secured a list of those who had fallen ill leading up to Sam's death because those were most likely the people taking Retro which means they might know something about the people who had given it to Sammy.

The last interview was with Aniyah and she greeted Dick again by name “Hi Dick.”

“Hi Aniyah.”

“So what do you want to know?”

“Did Sam ever talk about something called 'Retro'?”

Aniyah frowned “Not to me he didn't. Is that some drug? Sammy said he would never do drugs, he promised me!”

Amy held her arms out to calm her, like she was a startled animal “I believe he kept that promise. I don't think it was a drug that killed him.” Dick agreed, it probably wasn't Retro itself that had killed Sam. Most likely it was the people behind the drug that were responsible for his death, now they just had to find them. “Did Sammy seem ill or paranoid? Near the end?”

“He was more closed off. We used to hang out by his locker because it was closer to class but her insisted we go somewhere else. My locker, Jerome's locker, the Cafeteria, anywhere else. I always wondered what he was hiding. He was trying to keep me away from it all.”

Amy put a hand on her shoulder “Aniyah, I know we can't bring him back but I promise you we will do everything we can to get him justice.”

 

“Thank you.”

 


	2. X

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Driving back to the station was a silent affair. As they waited for the lights to turn green Dick asked “Does it ever get easier?”_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _“Does what get easier?” Amy questioned._
> 
>  
> 
> _“Dead kids.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Amy was silent for a moment “No.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This references 'Borrowing. Stealing' which is the 4th fic in the series.

****EARTH-25, Main Timeline** **

****LOCATION: Blüdhaven** **

****DATE: 11/04/2018**  (DAY/MONTH/YEAR) [Two months before Bruce's Death]**

 

 ****Driving back to the station was a silent affair. As they waited for the lights to turn green Dick asked “Does it ever get easier?”

“Does what get easier?” Amy questioned.

“Dead kids.”

Amy was silent for a moment “No.” she sighed “All we can do is get better at coping, putting the case above our feelings.”

“My brother died.”

Amy looked over at him sharply, it was a rare occasion that Dick talked about his family over in Gotham. “I'm sorry.”

“He was about to turn 14, got hit by some ass hole getaway driver. They never got caught.”

“Is that why you became a cop?”

That wasn't why. Dick had become a cop because Bruce's parents had died to a criminal who had never been caught. Because his own parents had been killed and Tony Zucco had been this close to getting away. Dick became a cop because over two lifetimes, two little boys had sat alone in Gotham and wept because their parents were dead, Dick became a cop so that no child would have to feel like that again. Amy didn't need to know about all that. “Yeah, that's why I became a cop.” He replied flatly, still staring out of the window.

When they arrived back at the station Dick took his Retro mini sample down to the lab and logged the not-kilo in evidence. He informed the lab tech, Jenny, of what he believed to be in it so she could narrow down the tests. It was crazy how much the lab girl resembled that lab chick from NCIS. She had similar died black and red hair and goth fashion style. He even recognised the shirt she was wearing underneath her lab coat to belong to the fashion line RAVEN, Dick pointed “You're wearing a Gotham brand?”

She smiled down at her shirt “Do people from Gotham have some sort of super power where they know other things from Gotham?”

“My friends a big fan of RAVEN, she talks about it so much I could probably write an essay on them just from information she's told me.”

Jenny, gave him a smile. I'll see how quickly I can get this done.”

That was basically code for, I'll put you ahead of a couple other people which was good for Dick and his case. Amy usually let him handle the transfer of evidence to Jenny since it was common knowledge she had a crush on him which meant pushing in the evidence line. She liked getting her cases solved faster and that was easier to do when the labs came back quicker, as did Dick so they went with it. Dick was careful to not lead her on though, he'd hate it if Jenny got hurt because of him.

When he arrived back in the bullpen he realised that the station was much more full than normal, looking around there were a lot more cops in the building, cops he didn't recognise. Odd. In all the cops milling around he couldn't seem to find Amy.

And then there was one cop who looked familiar. The face in his mind was dimmed with time but that guy, that dirty blond, brown eyed almost unremarkable guy, he knew him.

He racked his mind for the memory of where he knew this guy and just as the memory clicked the Officer turned around and locked eyes with him. From the slightly smug smile that appeared on his face Dick knew the Officer recognised him too.

“Dick Grayson as I live and breathe!” The officer basically yelled across the large room.

Several bored and curious officers all looked up to see what was going on and Dick and the Officer met in the middle and greeted each other. The guy's partner tapped the officer and asked “Stew, you two know each other?”

Stew. Of course Matt Stewart, Dick remembered his name well. “Know each other?” Stewart asked and laughed loudly “I arrested this kid!” Dick went bright red because yes, Matt Stewart had arrested him when he'd been 16. “And now you're a cop? Wow I never would have thought!”

“Wait,” Detective Alexis Milano asked, excited “On behalf of everyone: you got _arrested_?”

Dick groaned “I was 16 and dumb.”

Matt grinned and threw an arm around Dick “The kid was 16, hanging out with his two older friends in Star City and I catch this kid illegally street racing with no license in a car that was his friend's dad that they did _not_ have permission to drive. Funny thing is he was actually really good.”

Dick was still bright red but he shrugged, he seemed to be doing that a lot today, “I was winning.”

Officer Ben Collins was keeled over laughing “How did we not know about this?”

“I was a minor, it's a sealed record. And it's not like _I'm_ going to bring it up.”

“I still can't believe goodie-two shoes, by the books Grayson used to be a teenage delinquent!” Alexis reiterated.

“I wasn't a delinquent! Let's not get carried away here.”

“I don't know, there was also some alcohol in your system.” Stewart informed them with glee.

“One beer!”

“And you picked up a chick.”

“I was a teenager! That's not a crime!”

Alexis was also taking this opportunity to film the whole thing so they could laugh at it all over again. “Oh my God Dick, you have to tell this story in full.”

“It honestly wasn't that bad.”

Matt guffawed, like a full on involuntary puff of laughter that clearly showed that whatever Dick was saying was utter bullshit.

“Okay, so it was kinda bad. Me and my friend Wally were visiting our friend Roy in Star city and his dad got a new car that was like the coolest car so we just had to drive it, Roy drove at first since it's his dad's car and we went to this under 18s club and then we picked up these girls and ended up at this party and drank a _little_ and then we were going to head home but this guy saw our car and offered us a spot in his street race and for reasons that will remain un-named I happened to be really good at that so I got to race but then the police roll up and Roy and Wally and the girls all hop back into the car and we try to make a run for it but they had us surrounded. Anyway long story short I got grounded for a _real_ long time and Officer Stewart arrested us.”

“How are the other boys doing?”

“Wally's working at the police car mechanics in Central City and Roy's got a great long term girlfriend and he runs a club up in Star City.”

Stewart nodded “Nice, I'm going to be informing my old partner about this run in, he'll be mad he missed this.”

“He probably won't believe I'm a cop now either.”

Suddenly Jenny was running up the stairs from the labs and directly at the small group that had gathered around the two conversing Officers “Dick! Amy! This is way worse than you thought!” She exclaimed waving her report in her hand.

“Worse? Didn't I already think it was pretty bad?” Amy asked, seemingly materialising from no where. Had she heard that story about Dick? He hoped not.

“It's not just the two terrible drugs you thought were in here. I ran the chemical compounds against a google search, everything in here is on the top 10 list of the most dangerous drugs.”

“How many drugs are in there?”

“Ten.”

Dick was silent for a second “All of them? All of the most dangerous drugs are in there?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck. We got that off a 15 year old.”

Jenny handed him the report “Then find those SoBs who made these. I've seen a lot of terrible, terrible drugs but _this_ , this is inexcusable. This could _rot flesh_. If you do it enough.”

Dick winced at that, “Amy we really have to talk to those kids who got sick off this.”

Amy nodded, looking at the drug sadly and thinking of her own kids, they weren't much younger than 15 and this drug was floating around schools, who knew how many other peddlers they had. “Yeah, let's go make some house calls.”

They went from house to house, speaking to the kids, getting information. None of them knew who Sammy had gotten the drugs from but they all said Sam had been scared of something. Something more than just being caught, he was terrified for his life. Someone had black mailed him and now he was dead.

Dick and Amy left the last house “We still don't have any leads.”

“Then we're going to have to hit the streets, ask around for some Retro. I might send you undercover rookie.”

“Rookie? I've been here two years now!”

“One and a half.”

“I round up.”

“I don't, now get some rest because tomorrow, you're hitting up every club I can think of for some Retro. I'll watch you on comms, I'll see if I can get another hot shot young cop so you have more backup inside.”

“Great, I haven't been 'in da club' in ages.”

“That's evident by your use of 'in da club'. And you're not there to have fun rookie.”

He rolled his eyes at the nickname “Hey I can do my job and have fun at the same time. This isn't my first rodeo.”

She shook her head disbelievingly “Just get some rest. We can write up our reports tomorrow.”

“Will do, partner.” Dick gave a lazy salute as they separated and made their individual ways home.

Amy came home to a kiss from her husband and hugs from her kids.

Dick, well Dick was alone but it was fine. He was only 22 after all, a family and all that wasn't really on his horizon. A girlfriend would be nice though.

 

He sent a text to _**'The Boys**_ _ **TM**_ _ **'**_ groupchat.

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** Guess who I ran into at the station today? ✓ ✓ 23:00

 

 **@RedRoy:** Who? ✓ ✓ 23:00

 

 **@Walman:** He said to GUESS. ✓ ✓ 23:01

 **@Walman:** Was it someone we know well or someone we met once? ✓ ✓ 23:01

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** I didn't literally mean guess I'm just going to tell you. ✓ ✓ 23:01

 **@AmazingGrayson:** It was Officer Stewart. ✓ ✓ 23:01

 

 **@Walman:** OFFICER STEWART! ✓ ✓ 23:02

 

 **@RedRoy:** STEWART? NO FUCKING WAY! ✓ ✓ 23:02

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** Yes fucking way, he was in there when I got there and he told the WHOLE station about the time he arrested me. ✓ ✓ 23:04

 **@AmazingGrayson:** Everyone, especially Amy and Alexis, all fell about laughing. It was so embrassing. ✓ ✓ 23:05

 **@AmazingGrayson:** *Embrassing ✓ ✓ 23:05

 **@AmazingGrayson:** **Embarrassing ✓ ✓ 23:05

 

 **@Walman:** Do you even English bro? ✓ ✓ 23:05

 

 **@RedRoy:** Can you spell? ✓ ✓ 23:06

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** Both of you shut up. Anyway I've got a sting tomorrow night so I'm going to bed. ✓ ✓ 23:06

 

 **@Walman:** OOOOOOh cop stuff. How exciting. ✓ ✓ 23:07

 

 **@RedRoy:** Much excitement :-| ✓ ✓ 23:07

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** G'night boys. ✓ ✓ 23:10

 

 **@RedRoy:** Night ✓ ✓ 23:10

 

 **@Walman:** Sleep tight. ✓ ✓ 23:10

 **@Walman:** Don't let the bed bugs bite. ✓ ✓ 23:15

 **@Walman:** _Wally West is Typing (…)23:20_

 

 **@RedRoy:** Wally please go to bed. ✓ ✓ 23:20

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** Or at least stop typing. ✓ ✓ 23:20

 

 **@Walman:** Right, sorry. Good night for realsies this time. ✓ ✓ 23:23

 **@Walman:** Hey 23:23! ✓ ✓ 23:24

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X is roman numeral for 10, as in 10 drugs in the powder.
> 
> PS here's the list I'm referring to:  
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/from-krokodil-to-purple-drank-the-worlds-10-most-deadly-street-drugs-a6719541.html


	3. $90

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Dick and Alexis danced for a bit, Alexis taking full advantage of the situation and grinding up against Dick so she could report back to the unofficial female officer club who had all admitted to having a teeny-tiny crush on Grayson, of course Jenny was in that club. Of course Amy was not._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> In her car, Amy monitored her screen, getting screen shots of people's face and running it through the system whilst boredly sipping coffee and trying not to let her legs fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 gram (g) = 0.03527 ounces (oz)
> 
> PS If you're a beta or good at fight scenes check out the end notes.

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 12/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

 ****Dick spent the next day with his hat on so that when he hit the club that evening, it would be less likely that he'd be recognised.

Over the course of the day Amy and him broke up 3 domestics, 2 fights, arrested 1 drunk and disorderly, caught 3 DUIs and stopped a robbery of a gas station. All in all a pretty uneventful day, no guns, no drugs, no murders.

That was good. It meant less reports and almost no follow up which meant that the duo could focus on their main case, _'The Retro Case'_ as it had been dubbed by the rest of the squad.

Alexis had agreed to go undercover with him at the club since they were similar ages, early 20s, and her own partner was on desk duty from a gun shot injury to the leg.

The day passed pretty quickly and before long it was club time. The three of them went to Dick's apartment to change into their club gear, Alexis pulling on a short skirt, a tight shirt and some killer heels whilst Dick pulled on a blue polo and some black chinos. He'd been told blue and black looked good on him, they brought out the colour in his eyes.

Amy who would be staying in her car around the corner stayed in uniform and waited for the two to change. When they came out Alexis looked at Dick “There's something missing.”

“What?”

“I know!” She leaned in and dishevelled Dick's hair so it looks appropriately windswept, effortlessly coiffed. “Perfect.”

“Oh wait, before we head to the club since we can't drink on duty you should gargle this.” he opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of whiskey “It'll make you smell drunk.”

“Alcohol on the breath, good idea.”

Dick got two glasses and they clinked cup before gulping the drink, swishing it around their mouths and spitting it back into the sink. No one had to know that Dick had indeed swallowed a drop. “Okay, we're all set?”

Alexis tested out the microphone in her necklace “Testing?”

Amy nodded “I hear you.” Dick tested out the camera on his watch “And I can see you. We're all set. Let's roll out.”

“Aye Aye.” Dick responded.

“What you're not going to say your catch phrase?” Amy asked Dick as they moved back outside, Amy to her police cruiser and Dick and Alexis to their plain clothed police car.

“My catchphrase?”

“You're always saying 'Will do'.”

“That's a really lame catch phrase.” Alexis chimed in.

“That's not my catch phrase. I don't have a catch phrase.” Dick insisted.

“Okay Rookie, if you say so.” Before Dick could counter she'd hopped in her car and shut the door.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The first club they tried was PRYSM, it was pretty terrible but it was always the most popular club in the area because the drinks were cheap. People valued cheapness in Blüdhaven, another thing that made it so similar to Gotham City.

Dick and Alexis danced for a bit, Alexis taking full advantage of the situation and grinding up against Dick so she could report back to the unofficial female officer club who had all admitted to having a teenie-tinie crush on Grayson, of course Jenny was in that club. Of course Amy was not.

In her car, Amy monitored her screen, getting screen shots of people's face and running it through the system whilst boredly sipping coffee and trying not to let her legs fall asleep.

Dick looked around as they danced and spun Alexis around so she was facing him, “3 o'clock, blond guy, red shirt.”

Alexis casually glanced over and observed who Dick was pointing out, the man in question was shaking hands with a couple people, there was definitely an exchange of objects happening. The guys he was 'shaking hands with' gave the blond dude a nod and left to the bathroom where they would most likely snort their new stash.

Dick spun Alexis playfully so he had an excuse to get his watch hand high and get footage of the blond dude and his customers. “Hopefully Amy got that.”

“So are we gonna get some drugs or what?” Alexis asked.

Dick looked around “How good are you at acting drunk?”

“Pretty good. Why?”

“Let's get you some fruit punch.”

“I'm more of a Bloody Mary kind of gal but okay.”

“Relax, it's not like you'll actually be drinking it.”

The two hit up the bar, flashed their driver's licenses as ID and got one fruit punch and one Disaronno and coke and then made their way over to the blond dude.

Dick struck up a very casual conversation with the guy whilst Alexis stood close by, rolled her eyes and chewed gum belligerently, pretended not to pay attention even a little bit. She was very good. “How's it going.”

“It's going pretty good.” The blond guy replied, not really paying attention either, although he seemed a bit suspicious of Dick “What's your name?”.

It occurred to Dick that they had not thought of fake names but they definitely couldn't use their own names “Jason, and this is my girl Bianca.” he gestured to Alexis.

“Hi.” 'Bianca' said dismissively with a small wave of her hand. She took a sip of her drink and looked away again although she mumbled to 'Jason' “Can you hurry up? I'm bored.”

'Jason' shot her an annoyed glare for the sake of the blond dude who they still didn't have a name for, he seemed a lot more interested now that 'Bianca' had 'accidentally' given away that they had a goal in mind. “And you are?” Dick asked the blond guy, raising his hand to itch his neck and get a clean shot of his face with his watch cam.

“People call me Bruno.”

Dick laughed like he was dumb “People call you, like that's not your name.” When Bruno didn't seem to find it amusing or react at all Dick pretended to back peddle “Oh, that's not your name. Okay. Cool. Coooooool.” He hesitated looking around as if nervous to be caught and then said “So this music is pretty dead... I think I prefer the _Retro_ stuff. You know?”

Bruno smiled at him “You like retro stuff?”

“Yeah, don't suppose you could help me and my girl out?”

Alexis looked back over at the two men “For fuck's sake Jason can you stop with the code bullshit, this isn't some spy movie. Bruco was is? We want some drugs, do you have any?”

Dick huffed and shushed her “Don't be so loud, there could be cops or something.”

She rolled her eyes again but didn't say anything just turned back to Bruno expectingly. Bruno smiled at her “As a matter of fact I can help you out. $45 for 2 grams.”

“I got 90 bucks.” Dick responded, reaching into his pocket for his wallet.

“Slowly.” Bruno told him, “Don't want to draw attention to this exchange.” He pulled out two 2g bags from his own pocket and the two shook hands, perfectly exchanging items.

Alexis leaned in, “So Brunco-”

“Bruno.”

“- is this where you do all your business because I might want to get more.”

“Yeah, this is where I'll be.”

Alexis nodded and took Dick's hand leading him off to the bathroom “Thanks Bruno, you'll be seeing me.”

As soon as they were in the bathroom Dick whispered to her “Nice acting.”

“I did drama in high school. You weren't too shabby yourself.” Alexis opened one of the bags.

“What are you doing?”

“Making it look like we snorted some drugs.” She dipped her pinkie finger in and dabbed a bit on Dick's nose.

“Aren't I going to accidentally inhale this?”

“Nah, you'll be fine, this is a minuscule amount.”

“Yeah a minuscule amount of 10 of the most dangerous drugs in the world.”

Alexis stopped “Mmmm, I guess I'm going by cocaine rules.”

“This is literally 10 times worse than cocaine.”

“Well it's already on your nose. Leave it till we get to the club and then I'll wipe it away and scold you for being so obvious.”

Dick grinned “Okay, showtime.”

When they got back out into the club they made sure to dance a bit more freely than before, Alexis even going so far is to pluck the cherry out of a strangers drink and eat it sexily, when she turned back to Dick she frowned and rubbed the powers off his nose “Don't be so obvious, you're going to get us in trouble. And don't waste it.” She looked around the room to check if anyone had noticed and she saw Bruno staring at her, she flashed him a smile and a flirty wave until Dick like the alpha male he was pretending to be, stepped in front of her, blocking their view of each other grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the club they fake argued about 'Bianca's flirtatious nature' the whole way out and 'Bianca' argued back about 'Jason being a controlling asshole' all the way back to their car. They drove around the block and stopped across the road from Amy, rather than risk being seen with a cop they called her. “Hey Amy, you got good photos of Bruno?”

“I did and better. Bruno's _real_ name is Omero De Caro. His rap sheet is pretty minor stuff, petty theft, a DUI a bunch of parking tickets.”

“Sounds Italian.” Dick noted.

“Right on the money, De Caro's brother, 'Big Mac' Macario, is (allegedly) part of the Italian mob right here in 'Haven.”

“Big Mac and Bruno.” Dick mulled over the mob brothers in his head.

Alexis winced “We're dealing with the mob?”

“It would appear so.”

“Great.” She mumbled.

The gangs and mobs in the Blüdhaven-Gotham area were some of the nastiest in America. If they had the chance they would kill you in an instant. If a case wound up with you going after the mob... well there was a reason so many officers were corrupt. You either gave in or you died.

Amy sighed, she had the most to lose in an exchange with the mob, she's so close to being promoted, she has 2 kids and her husband Jim, she had people the mob could use against her and people who need her but she steeled her nerves. This was what she signed up for “If Sammy got mixed up with the mob we need to know.”

Dick agreed, she was right. Sam had been 15 and dealing in these drugs, if he had stopped selling and he was as terrified as the witnesses had said then he had probably been killed by the mob. “I guess we're going up against the mob.”

Amy read through Big Mac's file. It was frighteningly sparse, little was known about the man, they didn't even have a picture. Just the name and his brother's whereabouts apparently. “Apparently Mac and Bruno's cousin runs the mob in Star City.”

Alexis sighed “Two mobs. That's even better. I guess I better update my will.”

“Alexis!” Dick exclaimed.

“What!? I think it's a legitimate concern!”

Amy agreed “She has a point. Dick I would do the same.”

“Amy come on, have some more faith in our abilities.”

“It's not about faith kid, this is the Italian Mob. They've run this city for decades, you really think 3 good cops are going to end that? If we find the link between the kid and the killer do you think they're just going to let us take them to court? Do you think any witnesses will testify? Even if we do figure out how to do this the jury, the judge, the lawyers, even our own God damn police force - they're all paid off or intimidated. There's no winning this one, all we can do is try our best. And our best might get us killed.”

The three of them sat in silence, the only sound the slight static over the phone and the music of another club, Club Code, playing dubstep at 1000 decibels. Dick deflated. This was why Amy called him Rookie, he still believed in the power of good cop work trumping all, that wasn't the case in a city as corrupt as Blüdhaven. “Yeah okay.” It wasn't fair that even their best still might not get justice for Sammy and his family. He thought about all those kids he'd spoken to yesterday, he thought of Aniyah who would never see their friend again. He thought of his own brothers Tim and Damian “Let's make a promise to each other right now.”

“Okay.”

“Let's swear on our badges that we'll always try and do right by Sammy and his family.”

Amy and Alexis both agreed to that. “I swear.” The good cops in 'Haven were largely outnumbered by the bad cops, mainly because the good cops either died or were turned to the dark side so those that remained on the right side of the law tended to band together.

“Well let's file this paper work and get home.”

They drove to the station separately and in a round about way to ensure they weren't followed and when Dick and Alexis walked in in their club clothes, everyone wolf whistled at both of them. A couple of the more brazen male officers openly stared at her ass. “Hey,” Alexis yelled at them “my eyes are up here.”

The ones who had been caught turned away bashfully whilst those that hadn't pretended they had never been looking by overly judging those who had been caught.

Captain Montoya walked out to greet them “So did you guys find anything?”

“Captain,” Amy started “can we talk in your office?”

“Of course.” Montoya led them to her office and shut the door behind them “What do we have?”

“The dealer Dick and Alexis found is the brother of the head of the Italian mob. Their cousin also runs the mob in Star city.”

Montoya grimaced “We're going to need to handle this carefully and quietly. I don't know who in this precinct is on their pay roll so there won't be much back up.”

Amy sighed “So we keep this under wraps?”

“Absolutely. Don't share case details outside of the three of you and I guess Ben and Josh. Those two are too green to be dirty yet. But watch them Rohrbach.”

“Don't worry, I'll only bring them in if it's necessary.”

“Alexis, I'm going to pair you with these two, even if your partner gets back out there until this case is solved. You can't even tell him.”

Alexis looked offended “Jamie's not dirty.”

“Maybe not now, but he's slipped before. Besides this is the mob we're talking about, do you really want to make him a target too?”

Alexis caved, “Okay M'am. I won't say anything to him.”

The Captain nodded “Okay guys, back to work. And keep me informed.”

Her three subordinates all agreed to do that and then filed out of her office to do paper work, and file the findings of their little outing, knowing that Montoya would try to keep the others out of their case.

As soon as it was done Dick dropped Alexis to her own house and parked the undercover cop car around the corner from his house so that if De Caro saw it, it wouldn't lead directly to Dick's apartment.

As soon as his clothes were off and his head hit the pillow Dick was asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know it's funny, in my head, the thing that started this fic was two things:  
> A) The believe and the want to flesh out Dick's cop side since there aren't a great deal of Officer Dick fics out there although there are some really great ones like This: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14092035 The Bells of St. Clements by CaramelMachete  
> and This: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2326226 I Pass the Night Watchman On His Beat by Kieron_ODuibhir  
> and this: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13384122/chapters/30656259 What Sort of Blue? by Amurtinyburr12
> 
> B) This idea in my head of Dick Grayson doing so Mission Impossible, cool betrayal and backstabbing and cool flips and explosions blockbuster action movie scene near the end so now I just need to figure out how to write that because fight scenes are really not my forte. Maybe I should find a beta reader or editor or something. Anyone good at fight scenes willing to help me out at some point in the future>


	4. 2:30 PM

****He woke up with a pounding head ache and feeling nauseous as all hell. Dick wasn't sure why, it's not like he had eaten anything different. Maybe he had finally gotten food poisoning from the station's coffee like everyone always joked about.

Dick could barely bring himself to stand, so instead he rolled out of bed, grateful for how low it was to the ground so he could just slide onto the floor, the cool, cool floor, and crawl to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He had to stand up to get the cup from one of the higher cabinets and it was basically hell. His head spun, his vision blurred, his stomach lurched. Even as the water hit his stomach Dick felt like throwing up.

He fumbled around for some pills and popped one Pepto-Bismol and one ibuprofen for his nausea and headaches. You don't call in sick unless you're really sick so Dick sucked it up and went to work. He felt even too sick to drive so he called an Uber and arrived to work slightly later then he usually did but still earlier than his shift started.

“Dick there you are.” Josh greeted him, jogging up to him at the door “I was wondering where you were, you're usually a lot earlier- are you okay? You look _really_ pale.”

And he did, he looked pale and his hair didn't have any life in it, laying limp on his head and obscuring his forehead where it usually sat perfectly gelled and combed and coiffed defying gravity as it did so. “I'm a bit off today. I just woke up feeling like crap.”

Josh raised an eyebrow “Sounds like a hangover.”

“Except I didn't drink.”

“Or do drugs?”

“No I didn't do any dru-” He stopped. And he looked away from Josh as if he was That's So Raven as he had a flash back to Alexis dabbing Retro on his nose. He'd breathed some of that in _for sure_ but no way had that been enough to give him a hangover with any of the benefits of being high. “Excuse me one second.” He said politely to Josh.

Josh looked very confused since the drug thing had just been a joke, no one thought Dick would break any rules, which was why him being arrested as a teen had been so funny. Dick stumbled over to where Amy and Alexis were talking about Alexis' mother's please that her child find a boyfriend already and how she should deal with them when Dick plonked down next to them “Alexis I'm gonna kill you.”

“What?!” She exclaimed, ending her conversation with Amy “Oh my God you look like death warmed over.”

“I'm like 99% sure I have a Retro hang over.”

Alexis gaped “It was like this much!” She held up her fingers with the smallest amount of space between them “No way did you get high off that.”

“You're right, I didn't get high, I just got the hangover! I feel like absolute-” His hand flew to his mouth as he very suddenly felt the urge to puke. He pointed urgently at the little bin by the desk and Amy instantly was shoving it in front of him. Dick threw up all of the water he had drunk that morning and then because his stomach was empty he was left dry heaving into a trash can. Josh had come over when he'd seen Dick puking with a bottle of water and handed it to him after he was done. “Ughj. Thanks.”

Josh whispered “Yo but seriously, did you do drugs yesterday?”

Dick glared back at Alexis “Not on purpose but it would seem so.”

“How do you do drugs by accident?”

Amy raised a hand to stop Dick answering “It's pertaining a case.”

“What case requires getting high, I want in!”

Amy smiled “Yes Dick's hangover is a ringing endorsement of drugs.” She shooed him away “Sorry Josh but it's classified.” Josh slinked away to his desk sadly. “Dick this might be a good thing, we now know the side affects of the drug and the symptoms of withdrawal which means we can try and identify users.”

“Extreme nausea, splitting head ache, blurred vision-”

“Jesus, Grayson! Why did you even come in today?”

“I like saving up my sick days so I can tack them onto holidays and have a mega holiday by pretending to be sick.”

“Continue with your symptoms.”

“Um... loss of appetite? I guess puking... and the destruction of my will to live.” Dick ended melodramatically, laying his head on the table.

Amy patted him softly on the head, when he was like this it reminded her of her own children. She knows Dick is much older than them, an adult really, supposedly her equal but he just looked so small and innocent like this “Come on, we need to get some blood maples off you hopefully whilst it's still in your system.” She pulled him up, with a bit of struggle seeing as Dick as essentially dead weight when he didn't follow her and then dragged him down to the lab. “Hey Jenny, could you take some blood samples off Dick?”

“Sure, why?”

She sighed “Don't ask how but he ended up inhaling some Retro and now he feel terrible.”

Dick had already found a chair and claimed it as his own, curling up as best as he could in a tiny plastic chair.

“Oh wow. He really does look terrible.” Jenny confirmed as she looked over at Dick's pale skin and limp hair. “One hit of Retro did that to him?”

“Yep.”

“This level of hang over is usually present in long time coke users, not first time users. The first time is usually great! Why would any one take this?”

Dick mumbled something unintelligible but neither women could understand him.

“Dick we can't understand you.”

Dick sighed and tried again “S'addictive.” He mumbled.

Jenny understood what he was getting at “Right of course, Retro contains some of the most addictive substances known to man. Of course people would want more.” Jenny drew three vials of blood and listed down his symptons next to their knowledge of the drug in the system. “Okay done.”

“Great, thanks Jenny. I think I'm going to take him home. He's kind of useless right now.”

“That seems like a good idea. Get well soon Dick.”

“Thanks Jenny.” He replied, his whole body being held up by his head resting on his hand which was propped up by his elbow.

“Come on Dick, up we get.” She pulled him to his feet and helped him back up the stairs and into her car.

He was basically dead when they got to her car and it occurred to her that she didn't know how he would react to Retro. Some of the drugs inside Retro could kill people and who knew how all the chemicals reacted with each other, she could take him home only for him to die or something. “Do you have anyone who can watch you today?”

“Um...” He took a very long time to answer and Amy wasn't sure if it was because he was thinking of friends in Blüdhaven who weren't working or because he was basically near oblivion at this point. “Shawn Tsang.”

“And where does he live?” Amy asked as if talking to a toddler, Dick was really out of it. It was a wonder he even made it to work.

“She lives... it's in my phone.” He fumbled around for his phone and unlocked it with a thumb print and handed it to Amy.

Amy looked through his contacts until she found Shawn Tsang and sure enough there was her address “And you're sure she's in?”

“Well she might have gone shopping.” Dick joked tiredly.

Amy smiled at his usual antics, typed the address into Google Maps and drove to Shawn's place.

As it turned out it was an apartment on the second floor 20 minutes away. They drove in silence and Amy kept the radio off so she could hear Dick's breathing properly. When they arrived Amy rang Shawn's intercom.

“ _Hello?”_ Came the muffled greeting.

“Um hi, sorry to bother you, I'm a friend of Dick Grayson.”

“Oh yeah?” She replied.

“Um, he's kind of... working through a non-contagious illness and I don't want to leave him alone at his apartment in case it gets worse. I was wondering if you could watch him for today?”

“Um.... okay, sure. Why not. I owe him anyway.” Shawn buzzed her in so Amy went back to the car and helped Dick into the building and into the elevator which was thankfully not broken.

Shawn greeted them outside her apartment and helped Amy place Dick on her couch where he promptly zoned out once again “Yeesh, what happened to him.”

“It's a long and classified story.” Amy was shocked by her bright dyed teal short hair that like some some kind of anime covered one eye because of her incredibly long side fringe. Amy was also drawn to her tattoo on her left bicep that said 'Run-Offs' with a little pigeon drawn above it. She was the opposite of who she assumed Dick would be friends with.

“Classified? It's cop related. Cool. So like... he's not going to die or something right?”

“He shouldn’t but he inhaled some unknown chemicals, we don't know how he's going to react to it but no one thinks it's deadly and he does not have good enough insurance to just chill out in the hospital.”

Shawn gave Amy a weird look at the insurance comment “So you're his partner?”

“Yeah, and how do you know Dick?”

Shawn laughed “Ex-criminal form Gotham. Ended up crossing paths with Dick when he was a kid he yelled at me a whole bunch and I ended up letting him go because I liked his moxie which of course meant he went straight to the cops and sent me to jail but when I got out of jail and moved to Haven, I got accused of a crime and Dick helped clear my name so like I said: I owe him.” She paused “How'd you know I'd help him?”

“Dick gave your name when I asked who might help him in Blüdhaven.”

Shawn frowned “Wow, he really trusts me.”

“Is there a reason he shouldn't?”

“I'm an ex-criminal.”

“You served your time. I assume you're reformed.”

“Yeah.”

“Then I don't see why he wouldn't trust you. That's just the kind of person Dick is. Okay I need to get to work so I'll leave you my number and you give me yours and call me if anything changes about him.” They exchanged numbers and Shawn promised she'd call if anything happened and Amy left and went back to work and broke up 3 fights with Alexis as well as answered 3 domestics, 5 robberies and 1 attempted murder which she managed to stop in time although not before the victim received a huge black eye. It's better than being dead.

* * *

 

Shawn spent the day working, yes she did work, she had an online store so she spent the day updating the clothes on the store and surfing the web checking out her competition.

Dick woke up at about 2:30, very confused. He groaned loudly and Shawn jumped, having largely forgotten he was there, he sat up rubbing his head and looked around confused. When he linked eyes with Shawn his forehead crinkled into a frown “Um hi Shawn.”

“Hi Dick.”

“What am I...?”

“Amy dropped you off, apparently you ingested some police related non deadly classified chemical and she didn't want to leave you alone in case you reacted to it badly.”

“I... don't remember any of that. All I remember is waking up this morning. And I think I threw up?”

Shawn set her laptop aside, “I'll get you some food.”

“That's not necessary.”

“Dick, Amy said you went to work and she drove you here form work and you don't remember any of that. I think you should eat.”

“I was at work today?” Dick asked bewildered.

“Just eat some food.” She made him a ham and cheese sandwich as well as one for her self and returned with the two plates on a tray with two glasses of orange juice “Here.”

Dick was way hungrier than he had though, he ended up eating his own sandwich and half of her's. “Thanks.”

“I owed you one. Consider the debt paid.”

“I said you didn't owe me anything.”

Shawn shrugged “You helped me, I help you. That's the code I live by.”

Dick nodded “It's a respectable code but it could get you in trouble one day.”

“Relax Grayson. I'm done with the criminal stuff. You're partner seems to trust you a lot, she didn't even question your trust in me when I told her I used to be a criminal.”

Dick shrugged “In our job you have to trust your partner.”

“Then why don't you trust her?”

“What?!”

“She thinks you can't afford medical care, how comes you didn't tell her that you're a mega-millionaire?”

Dick winced “You didn't tell her did you?”

“No I figured it out pretty quick that you were keeping it under wraps, I just don't get why?”

“I don't want the squad to think of me differently. I mean...'Wayne' there's a lot of connotations to that name. In Blüdhaven they don't know me like that.”

Shawn nodded “I guess I understand. I mean I came to Blüdhaven because no one knows I sued to be Defacer.”

Dick smiled “It's close enough to being Gotham without any of the baggage.”

“If by baggage you mean pockets heavy with billions of dollars then sure.”

“Okay, I'll admit I sound like a privileged white boy but what can I say,” he shrugged “I wanted to be a cop.” Shawn nodded, she did get it even if she was a bit resentful of his money. “So how's your shop doing?”

“Pretty well. I got a bunch of orders this week, I think it's really picking up. I might have to move to a bigger space just to keep up with everything.”

“That's really good. Dick stood up and stretch and then drank his orange juice “I feel way better than when I woke up this morning.”

“So are you heading back to work? You still have a couple hours left.”

“I probably will and it's naive to think cops work regular working hours. Sometimes it feels like I spent 12 hours a day in uniform. Crime doesn't just happen during the day after all.”

“Huh, I never thought of that. Well good luck with doing that for the rest of your life.”

Dick smiled “The hours get easier when you get promoted. All I need to do is wait like 3 more years and then I'm eligible.”

“ _Wow_ , _only_ 3 years. Why not just give you the promotion _tomorrow_.” She said sarcastically.

“It's the government, of course it's going to be slow moving but it makes sense. You need experience. Anyways I really should be going, thank you for taking care of me.”

“It was hardly taking care of you, all you did was lie there for half a die.”

“Well then thank you for letting me crash on your couch. You know... we should hang out more.”

Shawn rolled her eyes “Of course goodie-two shoes Grayson wants to befriend little old me.”

“That's the second time I've been called that in 3 days.”

“That's because that's what you are. But sure, having a friend like you wouldn't be half bad.”

Dick gave her a fake salute and then called an Uber back to the station where he returned to raucous applause from Josh and only Josh who informed him that Amy and Alexis were responding to a violent altercation in Avalon Hills.

So Dick decided to busy himself with some paper work until they returned with their arrest.

As it turned out they returned within 10 minutes with some volatile jack ass in tow, he was screaming sexist abuse at the two ladies so one could guess what he did to get arrested, Alexis hauled him over to lock up whilst Amy made her way towards Dick “You feeling better?”

“Yeah, way better. Thanks by the way.”

“Eh, I didn't do much.”

“Funny thing is, I don't really remember anything after I woke up. I think I puked and that's it.”

“Oh yeah, you puked. It was not pretty. Also I think Josh thinks you're a druggie.”

“Why?”

“Because you got a Retro hangover and we can't tell Josh so he thinks you just got high and that I'm now trying to cover you. He's been asking about it all day.”

Dick laughed “Classic Josh.” He drummed his desk “Okay well since I'm here and all catch me up.”

“Jenny took some blood whilst you were under the influence so we should have a better idea on his this drug interacts with the body. Plus we got all of your symptoms noted down so we can cross reference and hopefully find other users and rehab them. I have plain clothes rotating in tailing Bruno but he only does business at night which means as of right now we can only get new information at night.”

“Well that's annoying.” Dick pulled a face “What did the blood test show? I haven't checked in on it yet. Let's see if Jenny's done yet.”

The two went down to the lab as Alexis finished processing Mr Jack-Ass. “Oh good you two are hear, and you look tonnes better Dick.”

“Yeah I feel tonnes better thanks Jenny.”

“I literally just got your results back and this is very interesting.”

“The half life of Retro is even shorter than the half life of cocaine. Where cocaine a new user could maybe go 3 days without another high before they felt the need to do more, Retro it's only one day. Which means users will come back everyday and buy more and when the high stops feeling as good they'll have to do more drugs to reach the same amount so soon they're just buying hoards and hoards of drugs.”

“But I felt terrible after less then a gram, surely their customers would feel that too and not do it again.”

“From what I can tell, it's a one time occurrence. The brain's reaction to the unusual dopamine responses.” Jenny looked between the two sensing their confusion. “Okay so when you snort or smoke cocaine it enters your body and heads for your brain were it goes to where dopamine is kept and it releases the dopamine to where your brain processes dopamine. That's normal if you do sports or have sex or experience pleasure which is why coke feels so good but the thing about coke is that the dopamine is supposed to go back to the dopamine box but coke blocked the entrance. And then it just builds up so you feel this intense high. It takes a while to replenish that dopamine so during that time people get depressed and the likes. Retro is like that but 10x worse. If you could find some active users I would _love_ to get brain scans.”

“We'll see what we can do.”

They went back up to their desks and relayed the information to Alexis who looked very put off by this information “Wait, Dick if that's all true won't you be affected?”

Dick paused, he hadn't thought about it but he had technically inhaled some Retro and felt it's effects. “I... just won't have any more?” Dick said awkwardly.

“You better make sure you don't.” Amy warned him.

“Oh guess what I just found out!”

“What?”

“Dick, your friend Stewart, might be of some help to us after all!”

“Stewart?” Amy asked.

Of course Amy hadn't been there when he revealed Dick's past passed-times.

“Oh yeah Officer Matt Stewart he ar-”

“Nope! We're not doing this again, get to the point.”

Alexis sighed “Fine, you're no fun. Stewart is working on a case against the De Caro cousin over in Star City which means he has a bunch of info on the _whole_ family and how they run.”

Amy smiled “Well Dick since you're apparently friends or whatever, you mind reaching out to him for some info?”

“Yeah sure. I'll do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason in my head I changed the name 'Matt Stewart' to '[FORGOT FIRST NAME, I NEED TO CHECK BACK] Wheeler'.
> 
> I don't know why.


	5. You 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...But we're partners."

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 13/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

 ****Dick called Detective Stewart and he picked up pretty quickly _“Stewart.”_ He answered with the proficiency of a seasoned cop.

“It's Grayson.”

“ _Oh Grayson, what can I do for you?”_

“I hear you're working on the case against the De Caro crime family?”

“ _Yeah, it's not going too well but we're getting there. Why?”_

“I just got a case that involves the De Caros too. I was hoping I could get some of your case notes.”

“ _Oh yeah, sure. You're going to have to come up to Star City to get them though, me and my partner keep them paper so that people don't catch on to what we do or don't know about them.”_

“Fair enough, let me just check with my partner to see when we can come up. Do have any specific times?”

“ _Not really. This case is really slow going so just come up whenever you can and I'll meet you at the station.”_

“Okay, one sec.” Dick put the phone on mute and went to find Amy “Hey Rohrbach, Stewart says we have to go up to Star for the files.”

Amy sighed “Dick we have to start hunting down users, we really don't have time to be driving all the way to Star and back, it's like a 2 hour drive.”

Dick grimaced, she had a point “Tracking down the users in our city is important to the case but these files might have insight into the De Caro's that we can use. We can't ignore the crime family aspect of all this just because they'll probably come after us.”

“I'm not ignoring it because I'm scared, I'm saying we don't have _time_.”

Alexis cut in “Might I remind you that there's actually three of us on this case. Why don't two of stay here and see if we can find some Retro users and one of use go down to Star for the files.”

Amy agreed “That's a good plan.”

“I'll guess I'll go down to Star City and you two can stay 'Haven side.”

“See, problem solved. Now don't leave him on hold.” Alexis pointed to Dick's phone.

“Right.” he stepped away and turned off mute, “Hey, Matt I'm back it'll just be me driving up so I'll probably be at the station by 11:30.”

“ _Great, can't wait to catch up a bit more.”_

“Me neither, I'll talk to you when I'm close.”

“ _Bye Grayson.”_

“Bye.” They both hung up the phone and Dick turned to the two girls “So I assume the first people we have on our list of users are people at the high School who have called in sick recently.”

“Plus those people from the club.” Amy added “I ran them through the system. One of them got done for speeding last year the others have no priors. They all seem like pretty average middle class people. I checked out their social media, I think one of them's a Youtuber.”

Dick's face donned a sly smile “Of course one of them's a Youtuber, why am I not surprised. I hope I get featured on Drama Alert when we expose that guy.”

Amy's eyebrows furrowed together “Don't tell me you watch that trash Grayson.”

“I'm sorry what is Drama Alert?” Alexis asked.

Amy groaned “It's this gossip news Youtube thing that reports on Youtube news.”

Dick shrugged “I only watch it because my friend, Wally, is constantly referencing it, why do _you_ know what it is?” he asked Amy.

“What, because I'm _old_ I don't watch Youtube? I'm not _that_ much older than you Grayson.”

Dick raised an eyebrow “A) I never said that and B) You don't watch Drama Alert.” he challenged.

She rolled her eyes “Okay, yeah I don't. My kids watch it. It really is trash though have you seen this Jake Paul kid?”

“Can you believe me and Jake like the same age.”

“What? No you're not isn't he like 18?”

Dick snorted “He's 22! He's 1 year younger than me!”

Amy cringed “Oh God, Dick I don't say this enough but I'm lucky you're so mature.”

Alexis' partner, Jamie Blake, strode into the building “Guess who just got cleared to get back in the field!” He exclaimed and the squad gave him an applause and a few whoops “I'm all healed!” he sauntered up to Alexis feeling like a million bucks “Alexis, I'm back! Now I can get into whatever case you three have been whispering about for days.”

Alexis winced “Um... did the Captain not tell you...?”

“Tell me what?” Jamie asked, the huge grin slipping from his face and replaced with confusion.

Alexis winced again, clearly she thought she would be avoiding this particular conversation “The case is classified, need to know only.”

“Yeah, but we're _partners_.”

Amy taking pity on the younger girl got involved “Jamie, until the case is over Alexis is with us.” She gestured at herself and Dick “Capt'n's orders.”

“Yeah... but we're partners. Where she goes, I go.”

Milano sighed “I'm really sorry Jamie, but right now we've been separated. It's only for this case.”

Jamie frowned “How comes I can't be on the case?” He asked.

Alexis winced one more time, flapped her mouth a couple times and then turned to Amy for help.

Amy seemed equally at a loss. They both _knew_ why but it probably wasn't the best to tell Blake that the Captain didn't trust him “Jamie, it's Captain's orders.”

He turned to Dick “Grayson, you know.”

Dick looked up bewildered, he had been staying out of the whole situation, trying to concentrate on his work and failing because he had been eavesdropping “Um.” He looked from Jamie, to Amy, to Alexis to the Captain's office and then back at Jamie “I have no idea?”

Jamie huffed and stormed away, “Wow, okay, if that's the way you three want to play it.”

“Jamie, come on!” Alexis yelled after him but he wasn't having any of it. Alexis sighed dejectedly “Well this is great, now he's mad at me. How could the Captain not tell him?”

Amy gave her a sympathetic smile, understanding what it was like when your partner was mad at you “The Captain's got a lot on her mind, she's busy.”

“Uuuuuh,” She groaned, “whatever. It's the end of my shift, I'm going home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where Alexis' love of Youtube drama and gossip from _'Upper Class Snob. Hard Working Detective.'_ came from.  
>  That right there is how you write prequels.  
> Character development.
> 
>  
> 
> If you'll cast your mind back to the past chapters you will remember Captain Montoya told the dream teamTM not to tell Jamie Blake this case because he sued to be dirty and they can't risk the Italian Mob getting wind of their investigation too soon.


	6. 13 Not 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don't worry, my own department is crooked enough for me to be careful.”  
> “Speaking of which, you're from Blüdhaven. How do we know you're not dirty?”  
> “You can call my Captain, she'll assure you I'm not. And besides,” he gestured to Stewart who knew him originally as billionaire's boy rather than an Officer, “it's not like I'm motivated by money.”  
> Stewart nodded with raised eyebrows “Yeah, he's right about that. That's Bruce Wayne's kid."

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Somewhere in Star City, USA**

**DATE: 14/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

The next day Dick made the long drive down to Star City, he texted Roy that he'd be in town if they wanted to meet up or anything and then listened to podcasts for 2 and a half hours as he drove.

When he reached Matt Stewart's neighbourhood he sent him a text that he was close and Stewart sent him back a thumbs up emoji, letting him know that he was at the station and they could meet up.

They bro-hugged at the door and Stewart walked him to his desk and introduced him to his new partner, Officer Jerry Sinh - I say new, they'd been partners for years now but Dick just hadn't met him yet.

“So,” Jerry started “you want to know about the Italian Mob.”

Dick nodded “Yeah, any information you have: how they operate; their contacts, especially in Blüdhaven; anything.”

Matt gave him a stern look “Before you make a move on them I want you to tell me.”

“Yeah,” Jerry agreed “we've been working on this case for waaaaaay too long to have them spooked and take more precautions.”

“Yeah of course.” Dick nodded.

“And don't digitise this stuff! We have been painstakingly doing paper reports for God knows how many months.”

Dick nodded again “Don't worry, my own department is crooked enough for me to be careful.”

That seemed to ring a bell in Jerry's head “Speaking of which, you're from Blüdhaven. How do we know you're not dirty?”

“You can call my Captain, she'll assure you I'm not. And besides,” he gestured to Stewart who knew him originally as billionaire's boy rather than Officer, “it's not like I'm motivated by money.”

Stewart nodded with raised eyebrows “Yeah, he's right about that.” He pointed his thumb at Dick “This dude,” he leaned in so those around wouldn't hear “is Bruce Wayne's kid.”

Jerry pulled back “What?”

“Yeah, he's best friends with Queen's kid. I arrested the two of them years ago for illegal street racing.”

Dick nodded “And ever since then I've been on the straight and narrow path.”

Jerry laughed “Oh my God, you're not lying! You- you're actually- wow. Okay I guess I'll trust that you're not dirty.

Jerry handed over the files and Dick thanked them “And by the way don't go blasting that info around the station, I'm trying to stay low profile.”

Dick ended up sitting with the two older cops and actually catching Stewart up on their lives. He told them about Dick's time at the police academy, about his brothers, a funny thing Bruce did then he told them about Wally's job as a police cruiser mechanic in Central City and how his CSI uncle was doing (he married a reporter! Crazy right!), Roy's club didn't need much explanation, they were well aware, but Dick told them about his girlfriend, Jade, and how they met and they laughed about it and then Stewart told him about how his life had been going. Divorced the wife but they were on good terms and he saw his daughter all the time, she was 10 and she wanted to be a cop “just like daddy!” which was adorable and he showed Dick a video of her ballet recital which Dick cooed at even though, truth be told, he wasn't _that_ interested. He couldn't deny that she was damn adorable but watching someone else's kid do sub par ballet was not his cup of tea. He noticed a couple of the dates seemed off. He said she'd been born when Dick was 10 but that would put her at 13 not 10 so Dick just assumed Matt, like most adults he met, was bad at ages.

When Dick finally left, Dick made sure they all had each other's phone numbers and he promised to call for the case and then he headed over to Club Rubro (which was Latin for Red [in some cases] because _of course it was_ )

Dick didn't know Roy's assistant well, although he made an effort to be friendly to her, she recognised him the moment he approached, messaged Roy, smiled at him and allowed him into Roy's office area.

Said office area just seemed to be a huge lounge room with a desk and a bookshelf behind it. Half the shelf had CDs on it, not even records, just CDs and they seemed to be arranged in such a way that the colours _almost_ spelt a word. “It's supposed to say Rubro, It's a work in progress.” Roy said from his desk where he actually seemed to be doing work.

“I can see that.”

Roy finished his sentence and then stood up, walked around his desk and greeted Dick with a hug “It feels like waaaaay too long since we last actually saw each other.

“It really does. We need to schedule in some time for you, me and Wally.”

“We _really_ do. So what reason does Dick Grayson have to grace my little hamlet?”

“Well _Shakespeare_ , I had a case, needed to talk to some cops in Star City. Actually you'll never guess who it was!”

“Was it Stewart?”

“Yeah, how'd you know?”

“You texted us like two days ago he popped up in town, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Right, forgot about that.”

The two old friends caught up for a while before Dick sighed and stood up, “I should be getting back to 'Haven before Amy wonders what's taking me so long. You can only blame the traffic for so long before she figures it out.”

Roy sighed “Well, I'll see you on face time then, this has been great. We should do this more often, maybe I'll come up to Blüdhaven.”

“Please, you wouldn't last a second in 'Haven.”

“Hey I've survived in Gotham, that's where Jade's from, and I was fine! Gotham is worse than Blüdhaven in every way.”

Dick smiled “Don't let your girlfriend hear you say that, us Gothamites have a lot of hometown pride.”

“I can't imagine why.”

The two laughed some more “Say, Roy... you must have drugs in this club all the time right?”

He winced “Um yeah, I try to self police but it gets crowded, it's hard to weed 'em out.”

“If you hear anything about a drug called Retro, you should make sure it doesn't get in here. It's a new street drug, highly dangerous, don't... don't take it.”

“Dick, I don't do drugs anymore. I've been clean for 6 years now.”

“I know, it's just- Retro is highly addictive and extremely dangerous. Like I accidentally inhaled like a nanogram of it and I was knocked out for the whole night and half a day. And I didn't even get high, it was just the hangover.”

Roy pulled a face “Yeah, I'll keep an eye out.”

“If you get the names or faces of any Retro sellers, drop me a line.” Dick did his signature lazy salute and left before Roy could make fun of him for 'drop me a line'.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pro tip/Life hack: If you want to make anything sound cool, translate it to Latin.
> 
> EG _ego sum frigus_ (I am cold) as in I am sooooo cool. B-)


	7. 4th Copy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _She nodded at the files Dick was carrying “That it?”_
> 
> _“Yep. Mission accomplished.”_
> 
> _Amy raised an eyebrow “And that took a whole day?”_
> 
> _“There was traffic.” He responded._
> 
> _“I'm sure.” She replied dryly._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone noticed my numbers thing in every chapter title? 
> 
> I know, I know. I'm a genius. *flowers thrown on me* *bows* 
> 
> PS I kind of imagine this police station like the one in the Gotham TV show even though I called it the 99th Precinct after the one on Brooklyn Nine-Nine because I love every single B99 character.

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 14/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

Dick arrived back in Blüdhaven by 5:30 and was greeted by Amy holding a stack of case files. She nodded at the files Dick was carrying “That it?”

“Yep. Mission accomplished.”

Amy raised an eyebrow “And that took a whole day?”

“There was traffic.” He responded.

 

“I'm sure.” She replied dryly. “Just photo copy them three times. Give one to me, one to Alexis and one to yourself.”

 

“And the fourth one?”

“That's going in a lock box in the Captain's office so no one can tamper somehow.” She dumped the files she had gathered that day of suspected or known users on his desk and started walking away to grab her stuff and head home.

“Okay, and Amy don't digitise this.”

She turned around slowly “Why would I waste my time digitising all these files?”

“Hey, I don't know. I promised Matt and Jerry I wouldn't digitise this.”

“I feel like you should be telling that to Alexis, not me.”

“Okey-Dokey I will.”

As it turned out Dick had forgotten that the Police Station copier was slow and inefficient and it took an incredibly long amount of time to take the papers out of their original file, print one page 3 times, file it back correctly, file three other things correctly and then do that about a billion more times. By the time he was done, the next shift of officers had come in and he barely recognised anyone. That's what you get for chatting it up with you best friend in another city when you're supposed to be working. This is the ultimate karma.

When he was finally done, four piles in his hand on top of the one Amy had given him on his desk, Dick was keen to get rid of any extra weight so when he saw The Captain's light was still on he hoisted up all his files and made his way to her office, knocking with three kicks to the door.

She opened it after a second “Good grief Grayson. The department is trying to go paperless.”

Dick sighed “Star City guys don't want their case details leaked so we're being as cautious as them. That means no computer copy.”

“Is that everything?” She exclaimed, looking at the large pile that came all the way up to Dick's nipples.

“This is Amy and Alexis' user list plus the Star files duplicated by four. I am supposed to give one to you to put in a lock box in case our ones get tampered with.” Montoya nodded and opened a safe that was behind a painting of the mayor. “Ooooh, very secret agent of you Montoya.”

“Just give me the files Grayson.”

“Um, my hands aren't really free but it's the top one.”

She took one off the top and placed it into her safe, locking it behind her and ensuring it was closed with a harsh tug at the handled “Okay. It's secure.”

“Great, that's one file off of my hands.” He turned around to leave but the door had closed behind him “Um could you-?”

“Right.” She leapt up and opened the door for him as he carefully stepped out of the office.

“Thanks!” He carefully made his way to his car, balancing the files on his knee as he retrieved his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door with great struggle, and then actually open the door with even greater struggle but he finally managed to place the files in the passenger seat and hop in and start the engine.

When he got home, he started reading through Amy's case files so that he could familiarise himself with the users, people he needed to watch out for. His left leg shook the entire time. Dick put it down to being bored and a bit tired that he was just shaking his leg, up and down, up and down, like he would when he wanted to annoy someone who was sitting at the same table as him and the slight movement caused little tremors that everyone else felt.

He got through about half of the files before he gave up and went to bed.

 


	8. 90°

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**  
****

**LOCATION: 99 th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 15/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

“ _Dick” something called to him in the darkness._

_Dick spun around looking for the voice in the void but he couldn't see anything, everything was pitch black, there was no light, no colour. And then from somewhere far away he saw something in the distance it was bright, white so he started walking towards it just so he would have something to look at in this abyss._

_As he got closer he realise the white thing was rushing towards him, and fast but it was still so far away, and then Dick realising it wasn't rushing towards him, it was falling towards him, his whole world view shifted 90° anti-clockwise and suddenly Dick was falling, looking up as this white stuff fell towards him faster as if flipping the universe had made gravity act more quickly._

_The white stuff caught up and Dick clenched his eyes shut as a torrid of dust, of powder hit him. It went everywhere, in his hair, his nose, his ears, Dick realised he was breathing it in._

_He opened his eyes and grabbed a handful of it, running it through his fingers, watching as it ran out of his hand like sand only this time it went upwards. He'd recognise this stuff anywhere. It was Retro._

 

Dick woke, wiping the dust from his eyes only to realise there was no dust and there was no void and it had all been a weird dream, then he rolled out of bed.

Dick poured himself some cereal in the morning, but he was so tired he accidentally put the milk first. He started down at the milk filled bowl unsure what he was supposed to do with it and then realised he lived alone, shrugged and poured the milk back into the bottle before trying again this time cereal first. If Alfred had been there he would have told him off for pouring the milk back but Alfred... Alfred was no longer with them, which was still such a strange concept to Dick. Alfred had been part of the Wayne family even longer than _Bruce_ had and now he was just... gone.

Once Dick had eaten breakfast he pulled himself into the shower and then into his uniform, grabbing his keys, phone, badge, wallet along with the hat he barely wore and the gun he rarely fired.

He'd already gotten halfway down the corridor before he remembered he needed to bring those files so he sighed, turned around and then returned back to his journey only this time struggling with reams of paper, he gave his neighbour a nod as they passed each other in the hall and she laughed at his situation “Need help with the door love?”

Dick grinned “I'd really appreciate that Ms Montague, thank you.”

“Oh come now Richard, how many times have I told you to call me Dolly.”

“ _So_ many times, Ms Montague.” He replied with an either larger grin.

The older lady rolled her eyes but opened the door to the stairs for him, grumbling “Kids these days.”

Dick's drive to work was completely uneventful, boring even and when he got to work it was business as usual, he was greeted at the door by Josh with a cup of coffee and a few hellos from his other co-workers. Amy came in right behind him so Dick was surprised he hadn't seen her when he'd pulled in and she was deep in conversation with Officer Soames. Dick didn't like Soames, he was 80% sure he worked for The Blue Serpent Syndicate, who were an organised money laundering gang. The moment Dick had concrete proof, he would hand it over to Internal Affairs and hope it wouldn't bounce back on him because he couldn't afford to get a snitch reputation and Amy certainly wouldn't like it.

Dick knew Amy didn't like Soames either but Amy had worked with all of these dirty cops for years, she knew the advantage of being on these guys good sides so she tolerated them, Dick didn't have it in him to even pretend to like these guys, he tended to just avoid interacting with them or if he had to he'd keep it completely professional.

Any chance he got he collected evidence of their wrongdoings but none of it was ever enough to stick in court and no one would ever back him up unless it was rock solid.

In Blüdhaven the order of people to be scared of was:

      **1.** Mobs

      **2.** Police

      **3.** Gangs

      **4.** Random murderers and thieves

It shouldn't be that way. The only people who should be scared of the police was criminals but it seemed everyone from criminals to law abiding minorities to law abiding white people were all terrified of BPD. You never knew which one might use you as a scapegoat to cover up for their own crimes; who would plant or tamper with evidence to suit them. It was so common it was almost expected. And of course everyone spoke about it in codes and half-denials so no one truly believed that you had never done it even if you out right hadn't, even if you said so under oath.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Retro contains Cocaine and I don't know a lot about chemistry or biology enough to know how different substances affect people, I've pretty much based all the Retro side affects and symptoms etc on cocaine just to be done with it.


	9. 5'6 < 5'8 … Barely.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If we let them off the hook for their corruption how does that make us any better?” He snapped at her.
> 
> She looked up at him sharply, “Are you saying I'm corrupt?”
> 
> “ _I'm saying_ how does that make us any better.”

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99 th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 15/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

True to his word, Dick and Shawn had become good friends, they’d even hung out a fair bit when Dick wasn’t working or going undercover at some nightclub with Alexis. ‘Bruno’ fell pretty easily for Alexis - sorry Bianca - since it looked like she was on the verge of breaking up with Dick which Alexis carried off with impeachable showmanship, giving off a guise of thinly veiled disdain for Dick - sorry Jason - and that she was only really sticking around because she was a ride or die chick (and because he usually paid for the drugs).

Outside of work, Dick and the Defacer had become quite close, they had even gone to the movies together which had been surprisingly fun, they had a lot in common given that she was like 10 years older than him. Then again as a cop pretty much everyone he worked with was older than him, even Amy.

They’d become friends but Shawn still wasn’t too hot on cops in general so Dick was shocked when she showed up in this precinct. He didn’t see her walk in, didn’t see the way her back tensed up; he didn't see the way her fists clenched so tightly, her knuckles turned white; and he didn't see the way her eyes darted from officer to officer, holding her breath, waiting for someone to call her out, tell her she shouldn’t be there or arrest her - but none of that happened. She made it to Dick’s desk with ease and breathed out a sigh of relief.

The shadow she cast over his desk drew his attention away from his work and he looked up in shock “Shawn?” He hadn't expected to see her at the station - like ever.

“Hi Dick.” She kept her eyes focused on him so that she wouldn’t have to look at the cops swarming around them.

“What’s up?”

“There was a break in... in a couple of the apartments of my building. The officer who responded said there was nothing he could do but one of my neighbours says she saw his face.”

Dick frowned at that “The officer isn’t going to pursue your cases?”

She shrugged “He said there was nothing to pursue, cold trail.”

“And he knows that someone saw his face?”

“Yeah, it was one of the first things we said when he got there.”

Dick frowned deeper “Give me that officer's name. And I’ll stop by with a sketch artist, could you give me the witness's phone number?”

She winced at that “I don’t know if she’ll like me giving her number to cops...”

He sighed “Yeah, fair enough. Okay, I'll text you when I have the sketch artist and I'll swing by whilst she still remembers what the robber looked like.”

She nodded “Thank you, Dick.” She turned to leave when Murphy’s Law kicked in. Commissioner James Gordon entered the precinct like he owned the place. She let out a quiet squeak. Gordon would be one of the few people currently in 'Haven who might recognise her as The Defacer. The cops in here were from Blüdhaven, they didn’t know her and that had been scary enough, Gordon was about as Gotham as you could get. She retreated a few steps but she was in the middle of the bullpen, short of ducking under a desk there was nowhere to hide. Dick stood up, and put his body between her and the Commissioner which she appreciated. Dick wasn’t worried about Jim doing anything to Shawn but she looked scared and he wasn’t about to leave her to dry.

The squad stood to attention as he passed, Gordon held the respect of officers much better than there own Commissioner, Lowe, did; at least with Gordon you knew he wasn’t dirty. Pretty much everyone believed Lowe ate out of the mobs hands.

As he passed Dick he gave him a nod, right now Gordon was one of the few people in ‘Haven who knew the real Dick Grayson, but he didn’t stop to say hi, just went straight to the Captain’s office.

A couple people had seen the nod which had drawn the attention of a few other officers “How do you know Gordon?” Asked Soames.

“Um...” Dick started awkwardly “He’s a friend of my dad’s.”

The small crowd around Dick also attached some attention to Shawn, her crazy coloured hair certainly didn't help. “Who’s your friend here?” Officer Hank Hogan asked patronisingly, gesturing at Shawn.

Shawn may have been scared of cops, but she wasn't about to get talked down to “Shawn.” She replied, then she turned to Dick and asked “Who's your _little_ buddy here?” Hogan and Shawn were remarkably close in height with Shawn at 5'6 and Hank at 5'8 so being call small would have been like a gut punch to an 'alpha' male like Hank (Dick himself was only 5'9 but he'd never been worried about his height).

“Um, this is Officer Hank Hogan.”

“Well _Hank_ ,” she started, dropping any guise of respect with a single word, “how about instead of questioning Dick about me, you go do your job.”

Hank scowled at her, her comeback had barely even been a diss but it had been enough to anger him “What are you two dating or something? This your girl Grayson? Didn't know you liked older ladies.”

A small crowd had stopped to watch to see who would win the sub par showdown she rolled her eyes, she was less than 10 years older than Dick but that still put her in the 'Cougar' category apparently, “Ah yes, you must be quite unfamiliar with the concept of female friends seeing as women must never talk to you.” Shawn shot back, annoyed that Hogan hadn't even directed his insult back at her but rather at Dick, even through she was the one doing the insulting in this situation.

Around them an “Oooooh” erupted from the crowd. Now it was getting real.

Hank turned red and he was about to start yelling, Shawn could tell, Dick could tell and the crowd could tell and they all waited with baited breath, but just then the Captain and the Commissioner exited her office “What the hell is going on out here?” Montoya asked, sternly.

Everyone turned to the two superior officers, cringing inwardly that they’d all been busted.

“This is a serious place of work where we solve crimes and help our community and all of you are standing around aahing and oohing like this is some kind of rap battle! What do you have to say for yourselves?”

Everyone was dead silent.

“ _This_ is unacceptable. Hogan, you mind filling me in on what's happening?”

“Um... I just thought this lady Grayson was talking to seemed suspicious.” Hank fumbled for an excuse.

“Grayson, is this lady suspicious?”

“No ma'am, she was reporting a string of robberies in her building.”

“So Hogan, if she was reporting crimes, at the police station as she should, why did you feel the need to question her?”

“I had reason to believe Grayson was using work time to have personal conversations.”

“Grayson, is that true?”

“No ma'am, whilst it is true we're friends she really did just come here to report a crime.”

Montoya looked at all her officers harshly, staring each one in the eye and into their souls. Commissioner Gordon still stood beside her, watching her work, impressed and secretly laughing at Grayson, he would be telling Bruce about this. And then he noticed something, the lady who had started it all was none other than _Defacer_ , the woman who Dick had gotten arrested years ago, even before he'd thought about becoming a cop. Oh the irony – was that irony? Jim wasn't sure, people tended to misuse the word.

Montoya dismissed her people “Then everybody get back to work and stop wasting time.”

“With all due respect!” Hank cut in before everyone fell back into the flow of things, halting everyone once more “With all due respect, I still think the lady is very suspicious. You didn't see her when she came in here.” He referred to her very nervous stance upon entering.

Jim decided it was time to intervene or Dick's past might be revealed if they kept digging into how the two knew each other “Okay, whilst this has been fun and all, I actually know 'the lady' as we're calling her and she's one of the good ones.” Jim gave her a nod which she reciprocated.

Montoya looked shocked “You know her?”

“She's a Gothamite, you'd be surprised how often I run into people I know from Gotham when not in Gotham. Isn't that right Dick.”

The corner of Dick's mouth elevated itself of its own accord, so he gave off the impression of a cheeky grin, “Yes sir.”

Jim nodded to Montoya and she re-dismissed everyone “Everybody back to work.”

The two policing legends shook hands, shared a hushed, rushed conversation before exchanging polite goodbyes and talk soons and going their separate ways. Dick finished filing Shawn's case away and she left, with one smug glare back at Hogan which Dick just _knew_ he was going to pay for later but he couldn't fault Shawn on her actions, he had been kinda rude.

Dick looked over at Amy “Thanks for the help by the way.” he said sarcastically, a little miffed that his partner, who was supposed to have his back, hadn't said anything during the whole encounter.

She snorted, “I'm not going to fight your battles for you Rookie, I would expect you to do the same for me.”

“What? Sit to the side and not say anything? I think I can manage that just fine.”

“You say that now but it was really hard to not save you when you were floundering just then.”

“I wasn't floundering! We won!”

“You mean _Shawn_ won, you didn't really say much of anything except show everyone how much of a kiss ass you are.”

“What!?”

“You were the only one who called her 'ma'am' in that entire exchange and The Commissioner of Gotham seems to know you _and_ your sassy friend which is not good for _us_ because people might think you're a snitch and that I'm a snitch by association. I worked hard to foster my 'I'm not dirty but I'm not going to snitch on you' reputation and ever since I got partnered with you, it's fallen to shambles.”

He frowned, sure Dick didn't always take the 'snitch' route but that was because he had no evidence of their wrong doing yet, he wasn't actively trying to befriend them the way she was “If we let them off the hook for their corruption how does that make us any better?” He snapped at her, his fist was clenched so tightly, his arm shook or maybe it was the other way around, maybe his arm was shaking so much he had to clench his fist in order to gain some control over his extremities.

She turned to him sharply “Are you saying I'm corrupt?”

“ _I'm saying_ how does that make us any better.” His temper flared, almost irrationally so. “Sure you don't do what they do but you let them do it.”

“I don't see _you_ reporting this shit to IA.” She hissed quietly. It was always a bad idea to even mention Internal Affairs in this precinct. It fostered suspicion but Amy was angry, and her reputation was in the drain anyways so she didn't care.

“That's because I don't have any solid proof yet.” He whispered back angrily.

“Please, you haven't even _looked_.” she spat venomously.

“Oh _you_ don't think I have!?”

“Have you?”

“Yeah I have. Was that not obvious from my tone?” His voice was dripping with anger and hostile sarcasm.

“Dick! You need to stop! You're going to get us both killed, why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I knew you'd tell me to stop, just like you are now and I'm no coward.”

She was furious now, her voice returning back to a slightly louder than average volume to give the effect of yelling when they had just been whispering, “And I am?!”

“You say you hate police corruption but you do _nothing_ to stop it!” He whisper-yelled.

“My family can't afford to lose me. I have people who need me!”

“So do I! So does Gordon, but that didn't stop him from turning around the GCPD!”

“Yeah with the help of Black Canary.”

“ _Please,_ Canary isn't in Gotham hardly as much as people think she is.”

“So is that your master plan huh? Become like Gordon clean up the department from the inside?”

“I'm just here to help people.”

She narrowed her eyes at him “You work for him don't you. When I got assigned to you Captain said you were a bit of a mystery this is why isn't it, you don't work for IA, you work for Gordon!”

“I don't work for anyone except Montoya! Is it so hard to believe that I actually just want to help people?!”

“What are you two whispering about, I thought we were doing this case together guys, you have to catch me up!” Alexis whined, wandering over to their desks, nonchalantly, not at all picking up on the hostile vibes.

“We weren't talking about the case.” Dick said abruptly “In fact I think our conversation is done.”

“You don't get to be mad at me, you're the one who called me a coward!”

“And why do you think I did that?” He shoved the appropriate files in Alexis' hands and then started typing something on his computer, his keyboard making loud clacking sounds as he typed harshly, his hands stiff with anger.

Alexis looked between the two cops that were usually the best of friends, right as rain, would trust each other no matter what. Dick had been here for over a year and a half and she'd never really seen them have a fight in all that time. The biggest fight she could recall was the other day when they argued about Jake Paul's age, if that even counted.

“Come on guys, don't make me the awkward third wheel.” She groaned, knowing she'd have to play buffer between the two if they stayed mad at each other, they still had to run the case together.

Amy huffed “Well _I'm_ a professional. This won't effect _my_ work at all.”

Dick, like a petulant child, continued to ignore her.

“Hey-Zeus Christo.” She mumbled to herself in annoyance.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are the side effects I'm working with. Obviously I'm not going to use all of them because no. Also Retro is a mixture of 10 different drugs but it contains cocaine so I'm using those side effects since it's IMO the most common, I didn't actually check that but whatever.
> 
>  **Side effects of Cocaine Use:**  
>  Changes in mood – including irritability and agitation.  
> Mental health changes – depressive episodes, anxiety, panic, etc.  
> Psychotic symptoms – including delusional thought and hallucinations.  
> Headaches.  
> Anosmia, or loss of sense of smell.  
> Sexual dysfunction.  
> Significant weight loss.  
> Seizures.  
> Heightened cardiovascular risks – hypertension, heart attack, stroke, etc.  
> Increased prevalence of communicable disease as a potential consequence of risky sexual behaviours and/or needle sharing.
> 
>  **When a person uses cocaine for the first time, they will likely feel the following effects almost immediately:**  
>  Pleasure and feelings of intense wellbeing.  
> Increased talkativeness.  
> Decreased appetite.  
> Decreased sleeping behavior.  
> Sense of feeling more mentally alert.  
> Heightened sexual arousal.
> 
>  **Short-term effects**  
>  Loss of appetite  
> Increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature  
> Contracted blood vessels  
> Increased rate of breathing  
> Dilated pupils  
> Disturbed sleep patterns  
> Nausea  
> Hyperstimulation  
> Bizarre, erratic, sometimes violent behavior  
> Hallucinations, hyperexcitability, irritability  
> Tactile hallucination that creates the illusion of bugs burrowing under the skin  
> Intense euphoria  
> Anxiety and paranoia  
> Depression  
> Intense drug craving  
> Panic and psychosis  
> Convulsions, seizures and sudden death from high doses (even one time)  
> Cocaine causes heart, kidney, brain and lung damage.  
> Cocaine causes heart, kidney, brain and lung damage.
> 
>  **Long-term effects**  
>  Permanent damage to blood vessels of heart and brain  
> High blood pressure, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and death  
> Liver, kidney and lung damage  
> Destruction of tissues in nose if sniffed  
> Respiratory failure if smoked  
> Infectious diseases and abscesses if injected  
> Malnutrition, weight loss  
> Severe tooth decay  
> Auditory and tactile hallucinations  
> Sexual problems, reproductive damage and infertility (for both men and women)  
> Disorientation, apathy, confused exhaustion  
> Irritability and mood disturbances  
> Increased frequency of risky behavior  
> Delirium or psychosis  
> Severe depression  
> Tolerance and addiction (even after just one use)
> 
> **Don't do drugs kids.**


	10. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS everything I know about the US military is from movies and TV shows and I barely watch Military TV shows so my knowledge is basically 0.

******EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Blüdhaven**

 

Alexis' mum was very religious. She hated it when Alexis had come back from high school one day and exclaimed “Jesus Christ!” in response to dropping some hot soup on herself. She'd been glad she hadn't dropped the F-bomb but using the Lord's name in vain? That was a big no-no. It was one of the 10 commandments after all.

As a joke Alexis had instead started saying 'Hey-soos Christo' and at first her mum hadn't minded until she realised that 'Hey-soos' was just another way, the correct way really, of saying Jesus. Then she'd been mad all over again. That hadn't stopped Alexis from saying it anyways.

Her father had been a veteran. Her mum used to tell her about him, how all he ever wanted to do was keep them all safe. How he'd gone on more tours than her mother could even count. How when Alexis had been 5 she'd barely known her father, had forgotten what his voice sounded like, hid behind her mother when he was home because he was a stranger to her.

Her mum told her how she'd yelled at him to stop leaving them, that if he really wanted to protect them he could do it better from America, from their home, if he really loved them he would stay.

She said that broke her heart, because she knew he loved them but she still said it and he still went back.

It was supposed to be his last tour. They only found that out later.

Later when he came back in a coffin and his CO handed them a folded flag and his medals and his dog tags.

Alexis didn't remember the funeral per say, she'd been too young, she remembered the feeling of her mother holding her as she sobbed.

He'd died thinking his wife didn't know that he loved her.

He'd died and her last real words to him had been “If you go, I don't want you to ever come back!”

Alexis' mother had always taught her the virtue of letting people know you love them, no matter how angry you were. No matter how you felt in that moment, understand it could be the last time you see them. Anything could happen.

For the most part, like a rebellious teenager, Alexis had ignored it. She had lived through her mother's trauma but she didn't remember it. It coloured her life but she didn't really notice. It was only now looking back that she realised how much it had affected her. He was the reason she had even become a cop, to protect the ones she loved. It was only now looking at Dick and Amy, two people who loved each other; two people who could _die_ on this case or on any given day of their hectic, crazy jobs; two people who could survive knowing the other died thinking they hated them if they never made up in time.

They were fighting, mad, for some _unexplainable_ reason. Dick had called her a coward and that had upset Amy for obvious reasons but outside that Alexis really had no idea what had happened. Both refused to tell her and both refused to talk about it, Dick adamantly insisting that there was nothing to talk about.

The two _refused_ to talk and Alexis was stuck in the middle, unable to change anything about the situation around her. She felt like that little girl all those years ago who had clung to her sobbing mother and asked her when daddy would come back.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figuring out how to write Jesus in the same sentence as _Jesus_ was so hard. Like do I write 'Hey-Zeus', 'Hey-soos' or like just specify that it's not pronounced the Anglicised way?  
>  Is there a different spelling?
> 
> Anyways this is actually something that I do although I don't think my mum cares at all but still. You know what they say the characters you write are either who you want to be or who you want to fuck and I'm pretty banging so... #Selfcest lol.


	11. 6 Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We're kind of in the middle of a fight. I don't really want to talk about it.”
> 
> “Come on Dick, they say talking about it makes it better, that's what we do in my support group.”
> 
> Dick took that new kernel of information and ran with it, both out of curiosity and to avoid talking about his fight with Amy Rohrbach. “Support group?” She had never mentioned a support group before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. This scene originally took place after the events of chapter 14 (I think) but I though it  
>  i) fitted better here and  
>  ii) fixed my small problem of a small-ish time skip in which apparently nothing important to the character   
>  happened at all.
> 
> 2\. Picolo is a free-lance artist, he draw the Teen Titans a lot and he loves shows, he recently got a gig working for DC for a Raven project which is pretty dope since he's always drawing her and now it's his job.
> 
> 3\. Bruce/Oliver billionaire rivalry is one of the best things about civilian Justice League.
> 
> 4\. The Bat family don't exist as heroes but Catwoman is still Catwoman. the Waynes don't know Silena is Catwoman which can be found in a previous fic of this same series.

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Shawn's Apartment, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 17/04/2018**

 

That night, after a hard day at work with no new leads and no friendly communication with Rohrbach, Dick went over to Shawn's with a six pack of beer and some popcorn. He'd promised to watch Mean Girls with her because he'd never seen it and she said she couldn't speak to someone who hadn't seen Mean Girls before. As the movie played they ended up chatting over some of it “Thanks again for catching that burglar.” Shawn said gratefully. 

“Don't worry about it, I was just doing my job.” He'd been pretty easy to find, a fact that he had told the original officers boss, apparently it hadn't done all too much except now that officer probably hated Dick for telling on him for being a terrible cop.

She shook her head “No you weren't. I know you worked that case off hours because you were never officially assigned it. We're not even in your precinct area.”

“Okay yeah, I worked off hours but I was still doing my job, consider it overtime.”

“Wasn't it you who laughed at me for thinking cops did regular hours?”

“Touché”

“Speaking of which how's your case going?”

“Terribly. I can't tell you much of the details but we haven't had any new evidence and Br-.” he paused on the name 'Bruno', even a name was too much to give away. “-our contact is getting us nowhere.”

“I'm sorry to hear that. But you're a good cop. I'm sure you and Amy will figure it out.” Dick inwardly cringed at Amy's name only it wasn't so inward since Tsang immediately asked “What was that face?”

“There was no face.”

“There was definitely a face.”

He sighed and submitted “We're kind of in the middle of a fight. I don't really want to talk about it.”

“Come on Dick, they say talking about it makes it better, that's what we do in my support group.”

Dick took that new kernel of information and ran with it, both out of curiosity and to avoid talking about his fight with Amy Rohrbach. “Support group?” Dick didn't want to pry, she'd never mentioned a support group before but the detective him in had to know.

“I... uh... yeah. It's...”

“You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.” Dick rushed out, worried he was pressuring her, it had clearly slipped out by accident.

“No, no. I want to tell you. I'm just not entirely sure how to explain it. It's sort of like a recovering costumed villain support group? A lot of us are actually from Gotham, so that's nice.”

“Wait... there's a support group for super villains?”

“Yeah. We're mostly pretty D-list villains I'll admit, we've never had one of the main Batman Rouges show up but we do pretty well for ourselves. We keep tabs on each other, make sure none of us fall back into our old ways.”

“Do you have like sponsors and stuff?”

“We have partners, and so we don't end up teaming up for a sick heist, each pair monitors another pair.” She got up and went to her bed room where he heard her digging around for something and returned with a chip, a lot like the one they give recovering addicts. “This is my 3 Year chip, they start counting from when you get out of jail. I'm coming up on year 4 soon.”

She held it up and Dick almost laughed when he saw the Riddler Question Mark bang in the middle “Who thought _that_ was a good idea?” He asked pointing to the notorious symbol of one of Gotham's finest psychos.

“Yeah, it was an inspired choice to say the least. I think Brendan came up with it. We all thought it was funny at the time.”

“Brendan? As in Brendan Li? As in Giz?”

“The one and only... actually a weird amount of us have crossed paths with you at some point. Giz and Mouse of course, Catwomon's protégées. I know Catwoman seems to have a soft spot for you.”

“Yeah, she was always turning up and helping me out. It was really weird but she actually really helped me in my college days. I kinda just put it down as another weird thing that comes from growing up in Gotham.”

“I can assure you that you're the only kid in Gotham with that problem. You know... you should come by a session one day.”

“And do what?”

“I don't know. A lot of us are scared of cops, we've all done time, we've seen the worst cops Gotham has to throw at us and some of us were pretty young when we got caught up in all this. I think it would be good to see a nice cop who isn't trying to arrest us.”

“Um... okay. Yeah I'd love to come by.”

“Great!” She handed him a business card “This is where we meet, every Wednesday at 7.”

Dick looked down at the card “The Run-Offs?”

“It's what we're called. We ran off crime. I know, it's kind of dumb. It started as a joke.”

“No, I think it's cool that you guys are helping each other and stuff. It's a good idea. I have a friend who used to be addicted to Heroin, and he refused to listen to any of us until he ended up in hospital. He went to some meetings, got his life back together and now he's 6 years clean.”

Shawn frowned “If he's been clean 6 years does that mean he quit when he was 17? Damn when did he start!?”

“He's a little older than me, he was 21 when he quit.”

“Doing heroin before you're even legal to drink.”

“Well you can join the army before you can drink, it's just another way to die really.”

“You're a police officer, no way do you really feel that way.”

Dick shrugged “I don't think I used to. I used to think if I stayed clean of all the corruption in my unit I'd be fine but I've recently come to accept that was pretty dumb. I... the case I'm working right now, it involves a mob that spans several cities. If they find us out before we get the drop on them... they'll kill us just to send a message. My partners advised me to update _my will_ for this case. The Army's probably even more dangerous. We have wars on drugs and crime, they have actual wars.”

Shawn stared at him “In Gotham... if you put on a mask you had to be careful not to step on anyone else's schemes. If you messed up a Riddler plan, you paid. Harshly. And God forbid you bump into Mad Hatter and you're blonde.”

“There's no honour amongst thieves?”

“If you're one of the high flyers and you're not enemies, maybe. Bane, Riddler, Joker, Hatter, Scarecrow, Harley, Catwoman, Ivy.” She listed some Gotham villains off “Those guys are the crème de la crème of crime, they're not usually down with us small fry criminals. That's why Catwoman taking Mouse and Giz under her wing was especially... charitable. I know a life of crime isn't all that great but you have to understand that those two were living on the streets before she found them.”

“That's why they risked everything to break her out of Belle Reve when she got caught.”

“Yeah.”

“What about you? You and Pigeon. Why did you turn to crime?”

“Pigeon... she was my Mentor. I didn't have the best home life and she gave me a purpose - a goal. Since I got out, I've found that I like creating much more than I ever liked destroying and stealing.”

“You know... that time you and Pigeon messed up that Picolo painting Bruce was really mad. He was about to buy it as a way to say 'F you' to Oliver Queen because he wanted to collect the most Picolo paintings. They had a running competition, they were rivals in basically everything.”

Shawn laughed “That's exactly why we did what we did. Privileged assholes – no offence to you and your dad – using works of art as a dick measuring contest. The art is for looking at. And since it seemed no one was looking at it, Pigeon thought that no one _should_ look at it, hence the vandalisation.”

“Yeah, I can see that. You know... my mum, my birth mum, used to be an art thief.”

“Noooo! She didn't?! Really?”

“She did. Her and her partner in crime 'Raptor', they'd go around Paris stealing from the rich. She stopped when she married my dad though.”

“Do you know why?”

“I didn't even know she did all that until after she died. I was 9, when you're 9 parents don't exist outside of what they do with you. I never thought to ask about their lives before.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Sometimes it feels like that can make it worse.”

Dick looked over at her sadly “You really sound like one of those AA support group people right now.”

“I'm the most stable and settled one in the group so I did kind of end up the unofficial leader.”

“You should make it official.”

She shook her head, halfheartedly. “I'm not really the 'responsibility' type. Besides, I don't have any kind of training, what if I end up making everything worse for them.” She turned back to the screen and smiled “Oh wait my favourite part's coming up!” As the movie said it Shawn giggled with glee and mouthed along “You go Glenn Coco!”

Dick looked at the screen, bewildered, he hadn't been following the story all that closely if he'd been honest. He had nothing against Chick flicks, he loved Clueless, but he'd been more focused on work and Shawn and Amy to concentrate on what he assumed to be a relatively easy to follow plot. Was this a Christmas movie and he'd missed it? Why was Santa there?

Dick decided to give up on the film, he wasn't watching it “So how's the online shop going?” he asked.

“Actually really good, except this super annoying customer I have. She claims there was a 'discolouration' on the dress but I've seen the picture! It was a stain and I _know_ it wasn't there when I shipped it which means _she_ spilt something on it and now she's complaining to me, ranting about how she's going to give me bad reviews if I don't fix it!”

“That sounds like hell.”

“Oh wow, this must all sound so dumb and trivial to you when you literally could die every day.”

“Not at all, dealing with customers is the worse, they always expect things that make no sense. Once I was in Taco Bell and this lady came in asking for fries and when they told her they didn't serve fries she accused them of not serving fries to white people and being racist. It was honestly crazy. And you know... that's a bad mind set to get into.”

“What's a bad mind set?”

“My problems don't mitigate your problems. They're all valid, just because it's unlikely a bad review would kill you doesn't mean it's not important.”

“Wow, you really would be great at my support group.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you say Silena Kyle or Selina Kyle? I know one's correct but I always forget which one and have to look it up because there's another character in Percy Jackson and I think her name is spelt the other way which is freaking annoying.


	12. 6 Criminals + 1 Police Officer Walk Into a Church Hall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grayson's police code/badge number? Is B1TT because in Young Justice his number is B-01 and he's a member of the Teen Titans. I realise that his badge number only contains 1 number but oh well.

******EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

 **LOCATION: Run-Offs HQ,** ****Blüdhaven** **

**DATE: 20/04/2018**

 

Dick had taken Shawn up on her offer and so here he was at 6:50 PM standing outside the Run-Offs HQ. He entered awkwardly and ran straight into Mouse. She was a short-ish, African-American women with two little afro-buns that reminded him of the hero Bumblebee, the top of her hair was neatly corn rowed (cane rowed) into straight lines and she'd taken on a pretty defensive stance. The two stared at each other and Dick struggled for her real name because calling her her crime name probably wouldn't help anything. Somehow his brain supplied him with Pamela Sweigeld and he hoped that was correct “Um... hi Pamela.” She looked him up and down. He'd worked pretty much until he would be late to this meeting if he didn't leave so he was pretty tired and he probably looked it too. He was wearing pretty casual clothes, he decided to leave his gun in his car, hidden, but he still had his holster and his badge and his police jacket because it was always cold in the Gotham-Blüdhaven area and he wasn't about to take off his jacket. Her eyes lingered on his empty holster suspiciously. “It's in my car.” He said, understanding her silent query.

“Se-Catwoman always liked you.” She said coldly.

Dick shrugged “I was never sure why.”

Pamela held out her hand to shake “Welcome to the Run-Offs.”

Dick took it and shook her hand, surprised she'd accepted him so easily even though he was a cop. Sweigeld must have read the surprise off his face because she smiled at him “Shawn, told us about you. And about what you did for her apartment block and that thing with Gordon and that asshat officer.”

Dick winced “Yeah... Hogan is... Hogan's not...” At a loss of words he simply ended the sentence with “the best.”

According to Shawn that's putting it mildly “Yeah, that probably is. Hogan's like the embodiment of short-guy syndrome. He's very stand-offish.”

She snorted at his description of him and led him to the room where they met weekly, “Come on Brendan and Grimm will want to meet you.”

“Grimm? As in Gorilla Grimm?”

“Yep.”

“How was I not aware that there was a talking, super smart Gorilla in 'Haven?”

Mouse shrugged “I don't know. There's crazier things in this city.”

“Which kinda sucks because I left Gotham to escape the crazy.”

“Maybe it followed you here.” She pushed open a door and revealed a very typical AA meeting room. He'd been to a couple with Roy in the early days but he would have been like 17 or younger, he hadn't been to one of these in years. There was a plate of doughnuts on a table in the corner along with a coffee machine that Dick assumed would produce less than stellar coffee, it would probably even be worse than the swill they served at the station but he'd conditioned his mouth to not gag on gross coffee and he did need the caffeine so he made himself a coffee and just put 4 sugars in it to counter act the onslaught of bad taste.

When the meeting started they were all sat on chairs in a circle, Shawn was nice enough to make everyone do a corporate Icebreaker. “Why don't we go around and re introduce ourselves. I'll started and we'll go around the circle this way” she pointed in Dick's direction, “I'm Shawn Tsang AKA Defacer, I used to be an art thief and vandaliser in Gotham but now I sell clothes online.”

“Um okay. I'm Dick Grayson, some of you may know me. I'm a police officer here in 'Haven.”

“I'm Pamela Sweigeld AKA Mouse. I used to be a cat burglar and Catwoman's protégée but now I'm studying computer science at Blüdhaven University. This is my boyfriend.” She pointed at the Asian boy next to her and he smiled at Dick too.

“I'm Brendan Li AKA Giz I was Mouse' partner in crime and also Catwoman's protégé and now I also study Computer Science but at Fort Joseph University. And this is my girlfriend whom I love.” he pointed back at Pamela.

Grimm rolled his eyes at their lovey-dovey crap “I'm Grimm, I'm from Gorilla City and I used to sell weapons on the black market but now I work construction sites lifting things and knocking things over for people.”

“I'm Juan-Andrés Santos Suarez but you can call me Andrés AKA Thrill Devil. Used to be an illegal street racer hence the bad ass name. Now I actually test new cars to make sure they meet the correct standards. Andrés was a Hispanic/Latino looking man and he wore a Black Sabbath T-shirt and some ripped black jeans as well as chunky black and white Timberlands that truly looked amazing. He had a small bull ring piercing and a full sleeve tattoo on his left arm. This guy definitely looked the part of thrill seeking daredevil.

The last guy looked like he had a very punchable face and the first words out of his mouth cemented that “The name's Randy Hanrahan AKA Stallion and y'all can ride me like one.” Stallion tipped his cowboy hat to the room and Pamela groaned loudly, clearly he'd used that line before, “I used to be a mob enforcer, right here in Blüdhaven. I'm probably the only one here who's not from Gotham. Now I teach people to ride horses.”

Shawn smiled at the group “Okay great, now that that's out of the way I'm sure some of you are probably wondering why I invited Dick here. In life we have to come across cops and yes there are a lot of bad cops but I think it's important that we all understand that not every cop is out to get us and apart from Grimm and Randy most cops don't even know us.”

Dick turned to Thrill Devil “You know Andrés I actually got arrested for street racing.”

He scoffed “No you didn't!”

“I did, I was 16, I didn't even have my license, yet we were in Star City I'd had one beer and I was driving my friend's dad's brand new car and we got caught just as I won the race.”

“And they arrested you?”

“Oh yeah, technically it's on my record but they sealed it.”

“And you still get to be a police officer?” Brendan asked.

“Street racing is a class B misdemeanour as is under aged drinking and they happened when I was a juvenile so yes. If it had been violent or a felony crime or I had been older I would have been disqualified immediately.”

As the conversation lulled to nothing Shawn took the reigns today “So does anyone want to share anything that happened this week? Any almost relapses, any triggers? Anything?”

Grimm grunted “Some anti-meta, anti-powers douche bag was giving me a hard time and I was like this close to just swiping him.”

“So what stopped you?”

“I would be proving him right. And he would have won.”

“And how do we win?” She asked the group.

They all recited “By proving them wrong.”

“And why do we want to prove them wrong?”

“So we can live our best lives.” They all chorused back at her.

They spoke some more about challenges some of them had faced over the week, plans for the future, how things were going with their jobs; Dick mostly listened, chiming in only when Shawn asked him to and being careful not to sound too preachy. He didn't have half a clue what these guys had gone through, living on the streets, becoming literal super villains. They were all very foreign to Dick so he tried not to over step his boundaries.

The meeting had been going for maybe 40 minutes when Dick's walkie talkie sprung to life on his hip “211, there is a hold up in the 7/11 on 4th Street.”

Dick frowned, he was on 4th street, which meant it was really close to him, He shrugged apologetically at the group, mainly aiming it at Shawn and then replied into his walkie talkie as he grabbed his stuff “Officer Grayson responding.” He gave them his signature pseudo-salute and then left them to apprehend a criminal.

Dick usually left his walkie on, even when off duty.

In his first month, he'd been 1 block from a mugging turned murder and had no idea because he was off duty and his communicator wasn't on. Amy had told him not to beat himself up about it, that it happened to everyone, that not even superheroes like The Flash could save everyone and be everywhere and Dick had agreed with her, but it hadn't stopped him from leaving his walkie on in the future. Many a peaceful evening had been interrupted, sometimes at the worst of times, but Dick never ignored a call. If he could help someone, he would help someone and so he dashed off to intervene in a robbery a few doors down, He didn't have his gun on him but that didn't make it any more difficult since the robber was jittery and inexperienced with his own piece. If Dick had to guess the guy had probably never shot anyone before. He looked surprisingly young, like how Dick imagined Jason would look if he'd lived to see early adulthood. His hand shook and his kept switching his aim from the cashier to Dick and since they were standing on opposite ends of the store it gave Dick a lot of time to get closer every time he looked away. The robber was facing the terrified cashier who had been so scared, he hadn't even managed to put any money in the bag, his hands were shaking so much. Dick attracted his attention “Hey.” And as the thief turned away form the cashier and towards him, Dick took the opportunity to get slightly behind the gun, grab his arms so they were locked in a position with the gun facing forward, away from either person and knocked it out of his hand. It clattered to the floor, and Dick pushed it away with his foot.

The criminal yelled out and tried to run backwards, to slam them into the display behind them but Dick simply stepped to the side and let the guy fall backwards into the glass door of the refrigerated section. He quickly and skilfully, grabbed his arm, spun him around and held his arm behind his back in a way that made him unable to move. “Okay, we're going to the floor.” He slowly lowered him onto his belly and the guy gave up as Dick put his knee on the guy's back. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you can not afford an attorney one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?”

“Yeah.” The guy replied dejectedly.

“Great.” Dick spoke into his walkie “This is Officer Richard Grayson, B1TT, The 211 on 4th Street has been stopped. Suspect apprehended, requesting police transport.”

“B1TT, where is your cruiser?”

“I'm currently 10-10.” Sometimes Dick hated all the police codes. 10-10 just meant off duty, why couldn't he just say 'off duty'? It probably took longer to say '10-10' and then remember what it means than just saying 'off duty'.

“Understood. Sending police transport now. Estimated arrival time 4 minutes.”

“Acknowledged.” Dick turned to the cashier who was still visibly shaking “Are you okay?”

“Y-y-yeah. Yeah I'm okay. I'm okay.” He seemed to be trying to reassure himself.

“You did really good.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you did great. The shop's still in perfect shape, you're okay and the criminal is apprehended.” Dick would have gone over to him to look him directly in the eye as he said that but he was currently malign sure the prisoner was secure.

By the time the other officers had arrived and they'd taken statements and everything the Run Offs meeting was long over. Dick shot off a text to Shawn.

 

_**iMessage** _

Shawn Tsang

Nickname: Defacer

 

 **Me:** _Hey Shawn, sorry I had to cut and run but duty calls. I figured the meetings over now so Imma head home._

 

 **Shawn Tsang:** _Don't worry about it, we all get it. Feel free to stop by a meeting anytime you want. And I'll see you later. We still have to watch Dumbo.”_  


**Me:** _Dumbo upsets me_. **:-(**

 

 **Shawn Tsang:** _You've never watched it! How can you know that!?_

 

 **Me:** _Circuses + Animal abuse = Me sad._

 

 **Shawn Tsang:** _*Eye roll emoji*Fine, we'll watch something less sad... like Up._

 

 **Me:** _Are you satan???!!!_

 

 **Shawn Tsang:** _*Devil Emoji* *Devil Emoji* *Devil Emoji*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roy, Wally and Dick use a messaging app where they can use silly names like @Walman, @RedRoy and @AmazingGrayson, I assume they use IG DMs.
> 
> Shawn and Dick just use good old iMessage because the app you use, is equivalent to your closeness as friends (in this fic). He doesn't have her instagram, he only has her number.


	13. 1 Bad Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a bad idea.
> 
> _This was a bad idea._
> 
> _**This was a bad idea.** _

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99 th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 25/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

Dick and Alexis had started kicking it up a notch with the undercover Retro gigs, Jenny had told them that if they'd really been taking the drug for this long they would be craving it constantly and that meant going to the club every night, acting like he was running out of cash, paying in coins, asking Alexis to chip in since she'd been “snorting half his Retro anyways”, and grovelling for reduced prices to Bruno who simply said if they didn't have the cash they couldn't have his stash so the two continued to act like they were on a downward drug-induced spiral and then that's when the next phase of their plan came in. Bruno had made it very clear he distrusted men in case they were cops or snitches, _whilst sexist_ it worked in their favour because that meant all Alexis had to do was ask “You need anything? A date to a family wedding? A girl to stand by ya and look pretty?” and he didn't suspect a thing. It was a risky move. Most girls that desperate for drugs would probably hop straight to offering sex but they'd all agreed they couldn't ask Alexis to do that, so they'd taken another route and hoped it worked out.

Bruno seemed to consider it “ _Actually_ , I do have a birthday party coming up that I need someone to come with me. If you behave the whole night I'll give you a little something for free.”

Dick's eyes lit up, this was it! Of course Bruno thought the happiness on his face was about the drugs, Alexis fake scoffed at him “Don't look so pleased there lover boy, the little something is for _me_.”

“I've been buying us both Retro this whole time and now you get some you're going to keep it?!” he cried in manufactured outrage.

She shrugged “I was gonna break up with you anyway.”

Dick huffed and stormed away, making sure to look angry all the way to his car, in case any of Bruno's guys saw him. You never knew where the cameras were and who had control of them so he took no chances. This was it, their way into the family!

As Dick sighed and grabbed his phone to put in his pocket but he realised he had a small bag in his pocket and froze. It was a small bag of Retro. He looked around, Amy was pointedly ignoring him. Or more likely she was just watching Alexis' movements and keeping her safe, but either way she wasn't looking at him. No one was looking at him.

Ever since that first hit, he'd been thinking about this stuff. He'd had dreams about it. No one was around and no one was looking and this bag wouldn't be logged in the system until Dick logged it which meant no one knew how much Retro was in it so if Dick just did a little... no one would know.

He slowly opened the bag and stared down at it. The purity of the little white mounds, Jenny had said it could kill him, if he'd been taken it this whole time he'd be co-dependent on the stuff. But it would just be one hit. Just one time.

He swallowed and reached a finger into the bag and got a bit on his finger, he placed it on his phone screen so it acted like a table and then grabbed his master card and ran it into a thin line.

 

This was a bad idea.

 

_This was a bad idea._

 

_**This was a bad idea.** _

 

Dick snorted the single line off his phone and then waited, he expected it to be instant. He'd never been much of a drug guy, he didn't really know how it was supposed to feel but nothing was happening.

He looked up and saw Alexis coming his way, he quickly shut the bad, shoved it in his pocket again and wiped his phone, card, hand and nose of any trace of wrong-doing on his part.

That was such a bad idea.

He unlocked the door for her and she hopped in the passenger side “Guess who just got invited to Winston De Caro's birthday party.”

Dick's eyes widened “Winston. As in the head honcho up in Star City?”

“Yup.” She replied, happily, popping the 'p'.

“Oh my God.” he mumbled “Oh my God this is it. Amy did you hear that?”

“I heard.”

“So we're setting up a raid right? At the party?” He asked, excited that after all their time going undercover they finally get to see the fruits of their labour.

“ _Technically_ it's out of our jurisdiction.” She sighed, “Also I would like to remind you that we don't even _know_ what Winston _looks like_ , how are we supposed to arrest him? The best we can do is send Alexis undercover and wait outside for her.”

Dick groaned. She was right, they didn't know anyone's faces except Bruno's. “So close...”

“Not really.” She replied, then she started driving away.

Alexis sighed, the two were still mad at each other and she still had no idea what they had said to each other to cause the rift but it was getting super annoying. Dick followed and dropped Alexis at the precinct. Dick went home, he would do his files in the morning.

The Retro seemed to hit him just as he parked outside his apartment. “Oh fuck.” he mumbled as a freaking unicorn rode passed his car window, “This was _such_ a bad idea.”

Slowly, he got up and out of his car and fumbled for his keys before remembering he didn't even need keys, there was a key code for the building. He punched that it and made his way to the lift which of course was out of order so Dick shakily walked up the stairs. He was tripping balls, everything looked like it was moving inwards and outwards as if the universe was a yoyo, why does anybody like this? This was horrible.

When he got to his corridor, the hall seemed to stretch for miles, he leaned on the wall as he walked but stood up straight when his neighbour Dolly Montague exited her apartment “Are you alright Richard?” She asked him, concerned.

 _ **'SHE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS YOU'RE HIGH AS A FUCKING KITE'**_ _._ Alarm bells went off in his head but he remained calm, paranoia is a side affect of most drugs. “Yes, Ms Montague. I'm just a bit under the weather.”

She nodded “You do look very pale and sweaty,” she reached up to check his temperature, deciding he must have been sick she continued, “I'll come round with some soup.”

So she can catch him tripping balls? No way-Jose “Oh that's quite alright Dolly, I'll be fine. Thank you though.” He passed her and finally made it to his apartment and this was where the key came into play, it took an entire minute for the key to find the key hole “Fuuuuuck.” He mumbled, angry at himself for his terrible willpower and sinfully horrific decision making abilities.

Dick paced his apartment for a second and wondered what to do and then he turned on his laptop, went on 123movies and watched a pirated Doctor Strange, he'd heard that was good to watch whilst high because it had a whole load of mind-fuck scenes with crazy imagery. Might as well. When the mind fuck scenes actually came on screen Dick exclaimed “Fuck!” _**'TOO MUCH MIND-FUCKERY'**_.

When Bendrill Cumberbrian's hands grew smaller smaller hands on the end and then those hands grew smaller hands and then _those_ hands grew smaller hands and then – Dick slammed shut his laptop.

He almost threw it across the room, he stopped himself by simply tossing it onto his bed. That was not a good movie to watch whilst high, at least not on Retro. Dick's mind was in over drive.

Maybe he just needed to sleep. He could sleep this off and that would be that. He'd never wonder what Retro felt like again because now he knew. He'd never take the drug again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dick's a millennial, he spends time on Tumblr and Twitter. He knows the Benedict Cumberbatch joke.  
> And yeah, he's a cop but he still pirates TV and movies. He's not a fed lol. Shout out to 123Movies.
> 
> PS I don't do drugs so any side effect that seems non-drug like, it's a made up drug so only I knew the side effects ha ha ha.
> 
> PPS When writing this I realised that 'No Way Jose' was not 'No Way Hose-ay' for the first time in my life.


	14. My Phone & My Soul Both At 20%

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **@RedRoy:** _You left me the weirdest voicemails last night_ ✓ ✓ 7:21
> 
>  **@RedRoy:** _Did you get a concussion?_ ✓ ✓ 7:21
> 
>  **@AmazingGrasyon:** _Sorry dude, I got black out drunk. I don't even remember what I said. Was it weird?_ ✓ ✓ 7:22
> 
>  **@RedRoy:** _I've heard you drunk. That was not Drunk!Grayson._ ✓ ✓ 7:22
> 
>  **@RedRoy:** _Did you do drugs??????_ ✓ ✓ 7:22
> 
>  **@RedRoy:** _?????????????_ ✓ ✓ 7:30

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Dick's apartment, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 26/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

This time when Dick woke up he didn't have a head ache or nausea or anything. He felt like a million bucks. Jenny was right, the hangover was a one time thing. When Dick sat up he looked around his room and realised at some point between Doctor Strange and sleeping he'd built a blanket fort in his room. “What the fuck.”

Dick decided to deal with it after work because he had files to do from last night. He got into his uniform and put his phone, only 20% charged, in his pocket, he also grabbed his charger. As he reached into his pocket he realised he hadn't handed in the Retro sample. He wondered if Amy and Alexis noticed?

He slid it into his interior pocket and continued with his usual morning routine. He waved good morning to Dolly and she said how glad she was that he was feeling better. Had he been sick? Of course, Dolly had thought he was sick yesterday. He thanked her for her concern. Being high was weird. He had so little memory of what he did last night.

He got a text from Roy.

_**@RedRoy Private Message** _

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Dude, are you ok????_ ✓ ✓ 7:20

 **@RedRoy:** _You left me the weirdest voicemails last night_ ✓ ✓ 7:21

 **@RedRoy:** _Did you get a concussion?_ ✓ ✓ 7:21

 

Dick's eyes widened “Oh my God, I was calling people whilst high.” He checked his call history and found the only listed calls were to Roy and one to Jason's old number which they had never discontinued. He needed to get his hands on that phone and that meant a visit to Gotham. He had also sent a text to Officer Matt Stewart about how the older officer had pushed him to become a cop (which was not at all true, why had he said that) and how Dick wanted to be the next Jim Gordon (again decidedly false, wtf was Drug!Dick thinking?) but it was nothing too bad, just a bit cringey and out of nowhere.

 

 **@AmazingGrasyon:** _Sorry dude, I got black out drunk. I don't even remember what I said. Was it weird?_ ✓ ✓ 7:22

 

 **@RedRoy:** _I've heard you drunk. That was not Drunk!Grayson._ ✓ ✓ 7:22

 **@RedRoy:** _Did you do drugs??????_ ✓ ✓ 7:22

 **@RedRoy:** _?????????????_ ✓ ✓ 7:25

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** _I will talk to you later. Gtg 2 work_. ✓ ✓ 7:25

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Dick_ ✓ ✓ 7:25

 **@RedRoy:** _Dick!_ ✓ ✓ 7:26

 **@RedRoy:** _Diiiiiiiiick_ ✓ ✓ 7:27

 **@RedRoy:** _Dddddddddiiiiiiiiiiccccccccckkkkkkk_ ✓ ✓ 7:28

 **@RedRoy:** _Fuck you too._ ✓ ✓ 7:33

 

“Fuck.”

It could have been worse. He could have called Bruce, or Tim or Damian or Alexis or Shawn or Amy or God forbid the Captain. That would have been career ending. Snorting a super dangerous drug that I was trying to bust whilst on the case? He might as well just hand in his badge. Jesus Christ it was such a bad idea.

* * *

When he got to work, Dick kept waiting for someone to call him out, for Amy to scowled him for not logging a piece of evidence or Alexis to ask where one of the bags had gone but neither seemed to have noticed yet because neither mentioned it. Nothing happened, they just went about their day.

“I have a suggestion.” Amy said to the group “I wasn't happy with allowing Alexis to go to this party and getting nothing out of it except his face. I say we wait out the night and before it's over we raid the place. That will give us enough time to get our guys in place, to figure out who he is. The whole shebang.”

Alexis nodded “I am all in for this plan.”

“Who would we get in on the raid with us?” Dick asked, “Captain said we were keeping this under wraps.”

“There's the two of us, Ben, Josh and your guys over in Star. I'm sure they know some people not dirty.”

A smile appeared on his face “I'm in!”

They got to planning the raid.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to Trav B Ryan, reference to his song 'Never Be Caged'.


	15. 20 Floors Of Wasted Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Dick, did you do coke? I know you when you're drunk, that wasn't you drunk."
> 
> "No Roy I wasn't doing coke."
> 
> "If you ever need to talk you know-"
> 
> "GOD DAMN IT ROY! I'M NOT AN _ADDICT_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote this chapter after I wrote chapter 22 when I realised I'd forgotten a scene I'd been planning in my head. Luckily it was right between like a 5 day time gap so there was space to just slot it in without messing up the internal logic of the story.

******EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99 th Precinct, Blüdhaven **

**DATE: 28/05/2018**

 

“Hey Grayson, you hear the news?”

“You're going to need to be more specific Josh, there's a lot of news.”

Officer Josh Watney laughed “I heard _Red Arrow_ is in Blüdhaven.”

“Oooh? A vigilante in 'Haven?” Dick asked, intrigued.

“I know right! Word is he's stopped a couple petty thefts here and there but he's looking for information.”

“Information on what?”

“I don't know yet, those people don't talk to me. They know I'm not gonna beat them up.”

Dick scoffed “If only we were vigilantes.”

“Operating outside of the law.” Watney added wistfully.

Ben Collins chuckled “Don't let the Captain hear you say that, you know she's not big on vigilantes.”

“Which I don't get,” Josh started, “isn't she from _Gotham_? Home of Black Canary one of the _first_ super-hero vigilantes.”

Dick scoffed “She's not around nearly as much as people think she is. She's definitely based in Star.”

“Oh sorry, did I insult your Gothamite sensibilities?” Watney joked.

“You jest, but if you said that in Gotham, someone would have beat you up by now.”

“Wow, tough city.” Ben commented.

“You have no idea. I love Gotham but being a cop in Gotham sucks.”

**CRASH.** On the other side of the room somebody dropped a mug and started apologising profusely as the officers around them assured them it was okay, and helped clean up the mess. Dick looked up from his conversation, shocked, and saw that it had been a shell shocked civilian reporting a crime to Koby and his partner Brandt, only she didn't drop the cup because of whatever crime she was reporting – no – she was looking at whoever had just walked in. It was _Roy freaking Harper_. The guy sauntered across the room and commanded everyone's attention, those are the kinds of things you learn in billionaire school. Dick could do that but he'd never been one to stand out like Roy, not that Roy was self-centred but his whole business ran on him being interesting. If he was in the news he could promote Club Rubro which was good for his bank account and for his investors. The woman had been so stunned by Roy's swagger, she'd dropped her mug. That wouldn't be good for his ego. “Hey Dick.”

“Hey Roy.” The two did the classic, hand grasp, shoulder bump bro hug, he pointed to his cop friend and introduced them “This is Ben Collins and Josh Watney, guys this is Roy Harper.”

They all greeted each other politely and then Dick asked Roy “What are you doing in 'Haven?”

“My people want to expand the Rubro brand into the Gotham-'Haven area. I figured if I'm going to set up shop here I should probably go to the less crime ridden city. I was hoping you could show me the best spots.”

“I absolutely can but it's going to have to wait until after work.”

“Yeah, obviously. Call me when you get off and we can meet up.” Roy waved and then he was off to check out the city.

After work, Dick did call Roy and he took him to the street where Club PRYSM was as well as several other clubs on the same street “This is club central. If you want to set up shop near everyone else this is the best place however, if you do you're gonna get drug peddlers using you as a drop spot and a selling station which I obviously can't condone.”

Roy took pictures of all the other clubs in the area. “Mmm, this is a pretty rad spot but I don't want to have to compete with all these older more established clubs, I know how tribal 'Haven is.”

He wasn't wrong, 'Havenites were very territorial all the clubs in this block were local owned and only a few of them were chains. PRYSM certainly wasn't, it was one of a kind, right here in 'Haven. “Mmm okay, if you don't want to compete with these clubs there's also the Caernarvon Section there was a whole little shopping town with shops and bars and both of the two good cinemas were there for some annoying reason. It was a hub of the community and a good place to put a club if you want people, it was also pretty close to the Blüdhaven university Campus which would help out if they did student nights. He relayed all this information as they drove there.

“Woah, what's this?” Roy asked, pointing at a half built derelict building.

“It was supposed to be new apartments but the company ran out of money years ago. It's just been kind of sitting here for a about a year now.”

Roy frowned “How many floors is this?”

“Um... I think maybe 20?”

“20 floors of wasted space. People could be living here.”

“Yeah, it's real unfortunate. A lot of homeless people squat here, the cops tend not to hassle them too much, even if they're technically not allowed on the property.”

Roy looked around some more and he noticed something odd “Didn't you say this was a hub of the community?”

“Yeah.”

“So why are there so many empty buildings. This whole line of shops is shut down.” There was a shut down dry cleaners and a shut down Chinese restaurant and a shut down coffee shop. “What happened?”

“Too many of the same shops in one area. People tended to go to the ones round the corner so this side of Caernarvon went bust.”

“If I bought these buildings, converted it into one huge space and made this the New Rubro. And then I bought those apartments and finished construction...”

“...'Havenites would love you.”

“This is it, this is where I'm setting up shop.”

“Make sure you make housing affordable.”

“Of course, I'm not _dumb_ , I'm trying to get on people's good side.” The two walked around the area of the city. Roy taking in every shop and business he could see and Dick not doing much of anything. “So Dick... about that voicemail you left me...?”

“Like I said, I drank too much.”

“You don't usually drink enough to black out.” The silent 'why would you drink yourself unconscious?' is present in his tone.

“I had to talk to the parents of a child who was murdered. It's been over 2 weeks and we're still no closer to figuring out who killed him. He was 15 Roy.”

Roy studied him hard, searching for something in Dick's eyes, he must not have found it because he sighed and turned away “Dick, I know what it's like.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“I can _help_ you.”

“I don't _need_ your help Roy! I'm fine. Really.”

Roy didn't seem too convinced but he sighed, it was hard to help someone when they didn't know they needed help “You can talk to me at any time-”

“-I do talk to you Roy-”

“-about anything. If you're having any issues. We don't have to tell anyone else-”

“ROY! I'm not an addict.” He wasn't. It had been a one time deal – wham, bam, done – he didn't _need_ Retro, he could stop at any time he wanted to. It wasn't like he was _reliant_ on it or anything. He wasn't an addict. He'd seen addicts, he wasn't one.

“Okay.” He finally gave up. The two walked the block in silence.

“I heard your favourite hero is in town.”

“And who might that be?”

“Red Arrow.”

“Eh, he's okay.”

“Please, you never shut up about him. You and Wally are always debating who could own in a fight Kid Flash or Red Arrow.”

“That's only because they're our home town heroes, it's like when you support a sports team because you live there even when they suck.”

“So you're saying Red Arrow sucks?”

“hang on, I wouldn't go _that_ far. I mean he's pretty cool.”

“There it is. He's totally your favourite hero.”

“Well what'd you hear about him being in town?”

“Josh wasn't sure, he heard that Red was looking for something but that hardly narrows it down.”

“That's some great detective work, truly.”

“Shut up man, it's not like we actually need to know why he's here. That's not anyone's case.”

“All I hear is excuses for you being a bad detective.”

Dick rolled his eyes “I'll have you know I'm a great detective. Amy and I have the highest numbers from this quarter.”

“What's that? Do I hear quotas?”

Dick groaned “Really?” Arrest quotas had been outlawed a long time ago because when you thought about it they made no sense and just ended up with a bunch of people arrested just to pad numbers and not because they actually should be arrested. Dick's numbers weren't up because he just arrested people willy nilly, Dick suspected it was a mix of arresting all the criminals and not letting those go who they had some alliance to like a lot of other cops did and Dick often responding to calls outside of work if he was nearby.

The two wandered around looking at more areas in Blüdhaven and talking and catching up until Roy got a text message, he frowned “Hey I should probably get back to Star.”

“Everything okay?” It definitely looked like the text had been an urgent one.

“Yeah, it's not a big deal but they want me back in Star.” He replied referring to the guys he worked with and the investors. “If you need to talk about anything-”

“Roy.”

“Okay okay, I get it you're fine. I'll speak to you later. I gotta go.”

“Bye Roy.”

“Bye Grayson.”

 


	16. 3...2...1...GO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next thing Dick knows, after being shot and passing out, he's laying in a bed staring up at a white ceiling.
> 
> "Dick! You're awake! When your Captain called and told me I was- I thought... it was the scariest- My job is to keep my kids safe, I already failed Jay... I can't lose you too."
> 
> Dick didn't know how to respond to that. He couldn't promise Bruce that he wouldn't get shot again, that he wouldn't die on the job. He couldn't reassure his father.

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Dick's Apartment, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 30/04/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

No one had noticed the missing Retro. Dick wondered if he and Amy had been on better terms if she would have noticed immediately. She was usually pretty intuitive, especially about anything to do with their cases.

Roy had been trying to question him all fucking week so Dick just ignored his messages because he didn't really know what to say. _'Hey dude, you know how when you were doing drugs I said you should stop as I witness your body and your life fall apart because of it? Well guess what, I did some drugs too. And really dangerous ones too!'_

How was he supposed to tell Roy, that after all his lectures on the dangers of drugs, he'd given in and snorted some? He'd already lied to his face, yelled at him to stop questioning him even though Roy was right, he had done drugs. But it was different, Roy had been addicted, Dick wasn't. Dick didn't have to snort Retro. Dick still had the bag.

It was almost completely full, he'd only snorted a little last time. He'd put it under his mattress because people had stopped hiding shit under mattresses a long time ago in this city so now it's the last place anyone looks. It was quite ironic really. Dick knelt down and reached between the frame and the mattress, scraping his hand on the wood holding everything up. There it was. The tiny bag of Demons. Dick didn't know why he was just staring at it. It was like It was calling to him, hypnotising him. He couldn't look away.

He'd already established that doing drugs was a bad idea, that he could lose his job, he could die and he would disappoint Roy and all his other friends and family so why was he opening the bag and tipping some out onto his table. He grabbed his credit card again and drew lines, there were two lines now since he'd poured out a little more than last time. He grabbed a sheet of paper, tore it so it was smaller than even A5 and then rolled it the way he'd seen in movies.

He was really going to do this.

 

Again.

 

With shaky hands Dick put one end of the paper in his nostril and the other over the white powder and sniffed.

Dick stumbled back and started coughing, he was not good at this, at all. Dick waited for it to kick in, pacing nervously because in that time before it hit but after he'd done it he had enough time to think about what could go wrong. This time he put his gun and his phone in his gun lockbox so he wouldn't send 'drunk' texts to anyone he knew.

This time when it hit, it was remarkably different.

Dick still felt very out of sorts but this time it made his brain happy – if that even made any sense. He felt invincible, like he could do anything; he felt hyped up on energy, like he'd just chugged 50 cups of coffee; it was if someone had connected a dial to the pleasure centre of his brain and cranked it up to 11. It was total euphoria, ecstasy and elation, the feeling was better than an orgasm he even felt kind of horny. He understood why people could get addicted to this, after feeling this good, why would you ever want to go back to their bleak existences?

From his lock box he heard the sound of his walkie talkie going off. There was an active shooter situation in a basketball court near his building. It was quickly turning into a hostage situation as the shooter realised he couldn't get out.

He heard many officers respond to the call with a their badge number and a brief “Show me going.” code that they were on their way to the scene.

Dick should help. Civilians are in danger and officer are risking their lives to help out, Dick should help out.

He fumbled with the lock and got it open pretty quickly, grabbed his phone, his gun and his walkie talkie “B1TT, show me going.”

He pulled on his police jacket with his badge on it and raced out of his building and into his car. He pulled up minutes later, was given a bullet proof jacket and an update on the situation.

Two guys had tried to get back at one of the players but the guy had leapt out of the way of the shot and ran off the court and now one guy was hunting the player whilst the other was keeping everyone hostage. It was a _real_ shit show.

“Do we know these guys names?” Dick asked.

“We don't know anything. Everything I just said is everything we know.”

“Well that's not a whole lot.” Dick sighed “Do we have any orders?”

Just then a squad of cops jogged passed “You,” the leader pointed at Dick “with us. We are entering the building. New Jersey State laws is that this is a safe zone but as we know people bring in guns from unsafe zones so we don't know who has a gun and who doesn't, try not to shoot a civilian with a gun please. Identify yourself as police.” He prepped them as the approached a back door, “We have 2 known active shooters, one is hunting the basket ball player V.J. Risco and the other is holding the crowd hostage. Our goal is to apprehend those two preferably alive but the lives of the civilians and Risco should not be forfeited to achieve that, everyone understand? Great, let's move in.” The door opened pretty easily with 1 hit from the battering ram and the team raced in, checking every corridor as they did so. “Clear.” He said as he reached the locker room and they did a quick search.

“Clear.” Another officer called out from the office area.

“Clear.” Another said from the public toilets.

Dick and three other officers went in one direction to find the Basketball player and the guy hunting him whilst the rest went to neutralise the hostage threat.

Dick was on high alert, the drugs still coursing through his system, he had a million thoughts but thought better and didn't say them out loud. They were being sneaky right now.

They all saw a dark shadow cross the hall ahead of them and they all started running to catch up “BPD! Hands up!” The guy turned around terrified. It was the player. Risco.

Dick told two of them to escort him outside and then come back to them whilst Dick and his new partner, Officer Jones, searched the rest of the area. “The son of a gun's gotta be around here somewhere.” Jones muttered to Dick.

As if summoned he appeared around the corner. They both pointed their guns at him and he aimed at them “Don't move. Put the gun down and put your hands on your head! This is the police!”

He did no such thing and continued to point his gun at them, slowly backing up as he did so “I'm not going to jail for this, not after what that guy did to my sister.”

“What did he do to your sister?” Dick asked, trying to connect with this guy so he could talk him down.

“He raped her!”

“Then take him to court.”

“We can't afford fancy lawyers like that! And he'll have an army of lawyers. And who's going to believe my sister?”

“You don't know that they won't believe her if you don't try.”

The shooter paused. “They'll drag her through the mud. They'll use every reason to discredit her, they'll paint her as a slut.”

“She'd get justice.”

“No! She'd get his version of justice which means him not guilty and us left with knowing what he did to her! She wakes up every night screaming because of him!”

It was hard to argue with criminals when they were right. The way the legal system was built, it was hard to prove rape. They all knew that, which means there was no talking this guy down. But this guy wasn't necessarily a bad guy, he wanted to right a wrong, he just didn't know how. Dick could understand that. Dick took a step forward “Dude, you haven't shot anyone and I'm sure any jury in the world will take your sister into account.”

“I'm not putting my gun down.”

Dick stepped slightly closer, inching forward like this guy was a cornered animal, in a way that's exactly what he was. “If you shoot us, we'll shoot you. And where will your sister be if you end up dead?”

“Where will she be if I'm in prison!”

“If you put the gun down now you'll have less prison time and then you'll be back with her. Just put the gun down and we can figure this out.”

The guy growled, clearly not convinced.

“What's your name?”

“Max Baden.”

“Well Max, I'm Officer Grayson but in my department I'm known as the 'soft cop' because I'm constantly giving the nicest, softest testimonies for people to make them look good.”

“So what, you'll make me look good?”

“Your cause is noble, the way you executed it... not so much. Everyone can relate to feeling helpless and angry but now is your chance to help yourself and your _sister_. Give me your gun.”

Max lowered his gun slowly and stepped towards Dick very slowly and placed the handle of the gun in Dick's hand. Dick disarmed him, read him his Miranda rights and cuffed him. Just then there was a loud holler, like several screams, from ahead of them. Max turned towards the sound, as did Jones and Grayson. Grayson frowned “Look after Max, I'll check it out.” He sprinted down the corridor and towards the sounds and then he heard the gun shot. His eyes widened and he yelled into his radio “Shots fired, I repeat shots have been fired.” and ran faster if that was even possible. His gun was still in his hand so as he approached the door, he slowed to a crawl and held up his gun, the drugs surging through his system, being eaten up by activity and adrenaline, giving him laser focus. He peaked through the door and saw that the other shooter had his gun to some kid's head. A lesbian couple who Dick assumed to be the girl's parents were sobbing, one of them on her knees begging the shooter to “Just let her go! PLEASE” the other holding her partner tightly and saying encouraging things to their kid. Every officer in the room had put their guns down at the shooter's request and they were all looking at each other unsurely, none of them could make a move against the shooter without risking the kid's life and no one was willing to take that risk. Dick was their only chance it seemed. He took a deep breath, there would be no second chances with this, if he missed or messed up, it would mean another dead kid in 'Haven. Dick couldn't have that so he wouldn't miss. **3...2...1...GO!** He busted through the door, startling the shooter enough to turn away from the kid who he had in front of him and held the gun towards Dick.

The other guy took one look at the situation and shot Dick point blank in the shoulder. Maybe it was the drugs and maybe it was the adrenaline and maybe it was a mix of both but Dick barely even felt the bullet enter his shoulder. He barely felt the bullet tear through even more muscle as he lifted his own gun and let off two shots.

**BANG**

 

A bullet hit his hand and the gun went clacking out of it, and onto the floor where officer immediately surged towards it to retrieve the weapon.

 

**BANG**

 

The other hit his knee and he went crashing to the ground, just in time for the other officers to surround him, having retrieved their guns from the ground.

 

Dick was standing there, bleeding from his shoulder and barely registering it. Jones had come around the corner with Max in cuffs after he'd gotten an all clear over the radio. Max in surrender, Officer Jones looking quite shocked that Dick was bleeding from his shoulder.

It was only as Dick moved to holster his gun that he felt the effects of the gun shot, he hissed in pain and Jones immediately handed Max off and pressed his hands to Dick's wound and he hissed again. “Fuck.” he murmured as the other officers took the other shooter, Max's older brother, into custody and took Max with them outside to a police car.

He heard someone say into their radio“Officer down.” and “11-41.” Which was code for _'get a fucking ambulance'._

It took him a moment to realise _he_ was that Officer and he suddenly felt very dizzy. He backed up so he was leaning on the wall behind him just to keep himself from falling over, Jones followed him to keep pressure on his wound “You okay there, Grayson?”

Dick nodded but then proceeded to slide onto the ground. He looked over at his arm, it was a bloody mess, blood had run all down his arm. The wound was bad but all this blood made it look even worse. Had he really lost that much blood? He wanted to puke. He'd used a gun on someone. He'd shot someone. Bruce would hate that, even if it was in the knee cap.

“Grayson, hey, talk to me man.”

Dick realised that even though he'd been shot _at_ before, this was the first time he'd ever actually been shot “I'm part of the Bullet Club now. Ha.” He laughed weakly.

“This your first time getting shot?” Jones asked, trying to get him talking.

Dick nodded again. Nodding made everything spin. He felt really woozy. And tired. He must have said it aloud because Jones replied “Yeah, losing blood will do that to you but you need to stay awake right now.”

“Awake. Right. I can do that.” Even as he said it, his eyes drifted shut. Jones shook him softly and he hummed in response but he didn't open his eyes.

“Grayson, you got to wake up.”

“M'wake.” He mumbled.

“ _Iiiiiiii dooooon'ttttt ttttthhhhiiiiiiiiink yoooooooou aaaaaaaaare_.” Everything seemed to slow and stretch around him.

* * *

 

The next thing Dick knows; he's lying in a bed, looking up at a white ceiling, there's a needle in his arm and there's someone holding his hand.

He looks over at the door and realises he's in a hospital and as he looks around the room a bit more he sees Alexis who's sitting in a chair, laying down as best as she could in a cheep plastic chair with uncomfortable handles, which must have been extremely uncomfortable and she was staring intently at her phone hence why she hadn't noticed him yet. He looked over at his hand and followed the path to one attached to his. It was Amy. Amy was holding his hand, she was fast asleep but one look at the clock told him it was long passed Midnight. “Ames.” He choked out. His throat felt so dry.

Alexis looked up in Shock “Dick! You're awake!” She handed him a cup of water that he struggled to hold so she ended up holding the cup and tipping it into his mouth for him. This had been Alexis' nightmare. If Dick had died it would have been like her dad all over again and Amy would be like her mum, forever regretting not saying anything, ending his life on a fight.

“What happened?” He asked, a bit confused.

“What do you remember?”

“There was a shooting. I responded.”

“You actually saved a little girl, but you got shot in the process. Jones said you managed to talk Baden down.”

Dick sat up a bit more as the memories washed back into his head and the motion woke up Amy. “Oh my God Dick! You're awake!”

“I-yeah. Thanks for being here you guys but you should probably head home, it's really late.”

Amy shook her head “Not a chance. I'm going to be right here, by my partner's side. I- Dick I'm so sorry.”

He shook his head “I understand why you do it. I don't think that makes you a coward.”

“It does in a way. How can I tell my kids that it's not enough to just not be a bully you have to stand up to bullies when I'm not doing the same.”

“It's hardly the same, you could die.”

“The principle is the same, and that's enough. Besides when I took this job I was _willing_ to die for the cause. Years in the force has degraded my commitment to the oath I took to Serve and Protect, a few more years and maybe I'll go from letting it happen to actively participating. Corruption is a slippery slope. You're right. I need to step up.”

Dick smiled weakly, “Go home Ames, see your family.”

Alexis nodded “Speaking of which, _your_ family is on it's way here from Gotham. I didn't know you had a little brother, he sounds adorable. Although he called me an _'imbecilic commoner'_?”

Dick sighed, that was definitely Damian “Yeah he does that. Sorry about that.”

“No no, it's fine. I found it hilarious! Your dad seemed so done with it though so I'll take you at your word that he does that _a lot_.”

Luckily for Dick the two women left before Bruce Wayne™ and the family showed up. Damian launched himself at Dick and gave him a hug, which jolted his shoulder injury but Dick didn't complain. He seemed to realise what he'd done and backed up quickly, to save face, he wasn't a _child_ after all; the very idea is insulting, “Harper and West are worried about you.”

Dick smiled, knowing that that was code for _Damian_ was worried about him. “Well you can tell Roy and Wally that I'm fine.”

Tim frowned a bit “Are you actually? I mean... you got shot.”

“ **This is America** , people get shot all the time. Besides it was in the shoulder, a simple through-and-through, I'll be fine in no time at all.”

Bruce sighed “When your Captain called me and said you'd been shot I... It was the scariest... I thought...”

“I know Bruce. I'm sorry.” The silent 'we've lost too much already, but you haven't lost me' passed between them.

“I was really worried. I'm glad you're okay.” Bruce also gave Dick a hug, a much lighter one than Damian's one had been and he made sure to avoid Dick's bad shoulder.

“Hey uh Tim, Dami, can I talk to Bruce in private for a minute.” The two kids, although Tim was hardly a kid now, he was literally a grown up, exchanged looks but went outside without much fanfare.

“Tt” I said _much_ fanfare, that didn't mean they were happy about it, and Damian made his displeasure known, even if he didn't complain.

“Bruce... I've mentioned the case I'm on to you right?”

“Very briefly. I thought it was classified.”

“It is, but that's not the only reason I avoided talking about it.” Dick paused unsure of how he was going to approach the subject “Bruce... I could die on this case.”

Bruce frowned “I thought you could die on any case, you're the police.”

“But this case specifically. We're going after the Italian mob. They have strong holds in Blüdhaven and Star and who knows where else. If I fail or they find me out, they'll be gunning for me. I've been told, several times, to update my will because of this case.”

“You have a will?”

“An initiation ritual at the Academy was that the graduating class all wrote wills. A way of saying they understood the risks of the job but we were willing to put our life on the line to protect and serve.”

Bruce sighed “So you're not going to quit.”

“A kid died because of the mob. In fact we've been looking into it, a _bunch_ of kids have died because of these people. You know why I became a cop.”

“How can I forget, that was the biggest fight we've ever had.”

“Yeah.” Bruce hated guns and he hated his son being in danger which was what he had told Dick when he'd told Bruce he wanted to be a police officer. It had all blown up from there with Dick storming out of the house, slamming every single door he passed, Bruce yelling that he forbade Dick from entering the academy, Dick yelling that he didn't have the power to forbid him from doing anything, Dick yelling that Bruce wasn't his dad. It had been a long and messy fight, only rectified when Alfred worked his magic. He still regretted that. He remembered how stricken Bruce had looked when Dick had said that, it was as if he'd physically hit him across the face, then again telling the man who raised you since you were 9 that he wasn't your dad was equivalent to a slap in the face.

“I- you're my son, it's my job to keep you safe. I've already failed Jay... I can't lose you too.”

“It wouldn't be your fault.”

“It wouldn't change the fact that you'd be gone.”

Dick didn't know how to comfort Bruce. He couldn't promise he wouldn't die, he couldn't promise he wouldn't get shot again, this was probably the first of many times, he couldn't promise that Bruce would never have to live through the pain of losing a kid ever again. “I don't know what to say Bruce. I can't quit the force and I can't drop this case.”

“You _can_ , you just don't want to.” Dick bristled, that line reminded him all too much of the fight Bruce had just referred to several years prior. Bruce rushed out the rest of his thought “And that's okay, that's more than okay. I hate that it puts you in harms way but I won't try and stop you or judge you or anything. You have a good heart and I'm proud of you for it. ”

“Thank you.”

Bruce very poorly hid the tears that had formed in his eyes and blinked them away, turning away for a second to wipe away a stray tear that had fallen. It was rare to see Bruce cry, the last time Dick could remember was Alfred's death and the time before that was Jason's. He hadn't even cried when Silena had abandoned him without a reason. But Dick had made him cry, Dick being shot had made him cry. And there was nothing Dick could do to reassure him that this wouldn't happen again because he couldn't guarantee it “I'll try and be more careful.”

Bruce smiled a bit “I appreciate that but I feel like that's probably not true. If someone's in danger you're going to do everything in your power to help them, even if it puts you at risk.”

“Well I just wanted to tell you, in case something happens to me and I didn’t want to worry Damien or Tim but they can come back in now.” Bruce invited them back into the room, as it turned out Tim had struck up a conversation to a pretty (tired looking) nurse, it was the middle of the night so she was probably exhausted, Damian was pouting, arms cross, bottom lip fully out, next to him. He was very glad when Bruce herded them back into the room. The nurse scribbled her number down and handed it to Tim, Bruce gave Tim a raised eyebrow and a look but he just shrugged in reply “We were talking about quantum physics and she wanted to exchange theories.”

Damian sighed “Thankfully they actually were. It would have been horrendous to see Drake attempt to _flirt_ with someone.”

“Shut up demon spawn, I'm great at flirting.”

Bruce smiled, all of this felt very normal Tim and Damian fighting, Tim being a nerd.

Tim ignored Damian's further criticisms which earned him a “Tt.” from Damian but he turned to Dick with a grin “Jim Gordon stopped by and he had a very interesting story for all of us.”

“Oh no!” Dick groaned, already knowing what they were talking about.”

“Oh yes! Apparently you got reprimanded by your boss.”

“And you're friends with Defacer.” Damian added.

“Her name is Shawn and she's turned over a new leaf. She has an ex-villain support group. They're all doing pretty well.”

“All?” Bruce asked, curious as to which ex-villains would have decided to quit the life and join a support group.

“They're all pretty D-List. Mouse, Giz, Stallion, Gorrila Grimm, Thrill Devil and Defacer.”

Bruce looked up in thought “I don't think I even recognised any of those names. Apart from Defacer because you got her arrested. Are you sure she's not secretly bitter and this isn't some plan to get revenge?”

“Bruce, this isn't Gotham.”

“But she's _from_ Gotham.”

“ _No,_ she doesn't want revenge. We're actually friends.”

“Good since we have all of that cleared up can you tell me who any of those people were?” Tim asked.

“And can you tell me how you know this 'Defacer' and why she'd want revenge?”

Tim's eyes widened “Oh my God! We never told Damian the Defacer story! You're going to love this!”

Dick smiled “Okay well that day I was pretty annoyed because...”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Donald 'Childish Gambino' Glover voice: **This is America**


	17. 6 Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All and all it was a pretty shit day and Dick just wanted to get home so he could hack through his work pile and then go to bed at a reasonable time which already seemed pretty impossible and then IT happened.
> 
> Pigeon, a D-list villain in her own right, and her side-kick Defacer came sprinting around the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shawn, 4 years out of jail  
> 6 years in jail  
> arrested when 19 (10 years ago)  
> Is now 29  
> Dick would have been 13 (Pre-Borrowing. Stealing.) He is now 23.  
> She is 6 years older than him, which isn't really that much older than him.

 

**EARTH -25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Blüdhaven General Hospital, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 01/05/2018 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)**

 

_**FLASHBACK** _

_**DATE: 06/07/2008 (DAY/MONTH/YEAR)** _

 

 _Dick's day had been going_ terribly. _Every teacher had sprung tests and quizzes on them that day as if it were some kind of cruel conspiracy to ruin his day; he'd spilt his orange juice on his shirt at break so he'd been stuck with a nasty orange stain on him all day that every person felt the need to comment on like he didn't know; Barbara was ill so the only snooty brat in the entire school that he could stand 100% wasn't there to mediate the snobbishness coming from everyone else; and he had a mountain of homework he had to do and half of it was due for tomorrow. All and all it was a pretty shit day and Dick just wanted to get home so he could hack through his work pile and then go to bed at a reasonable time which already seemed pretty impossible and then IT happened._

_Pigeon, a D-list villain in her own right, and her side-kick Defacer came sprinting around the corner, the rest of the street was empty so of course they saw him easily. Dick was walking in front of the Gotham Museum of Art and because that day had been cursed they took one look at him and Pigeon ordered Defacer to capture him so he wouldn't tell the police before they were done._

_She grabbed him and stuffed his head in a Hessian sack, who still used Hessian sacks any more? It was scratchy and irritated his skin and he couldn't see and it smelt horrendous, so breathing was a no-no and then he ended up tied up in the Renaissance era art section where a Picolo was hung up. They started defacing it and Dick sighed knowing he'd hear about this from Bruce for months since it meant losing his dumb competition with Oliver Queen over who could collect the most Picolo pieces._

_That, not even the kidnapping but the thought of Bruce's rants for months to come, was what pushed him over the edge. Defacer had been given the task of watching the captive whilst Pigeon got to work so Dick just started yelling at her. Cussing her out and screaming how pointless their whole dumb quest was and how they weren't doing anything worthwhile with their lives and they weren't even good villains because no one was scared of them and they had no money or power so they might was well not exist as villain and Defacer must have found it hilarious, or she took pity on him when he started ranting about how bad his day had been, and she let him go. Untied him and told him to leave and finish his homework so he could go to bed._

_Of course Dick did not do that. He went straight to the police and then proudly told every single teacher the next day that he couldn't have done his homework because he'd been kidnapped and it had all been_ very _traumatising._

_The story of Dick's kidnapping overshadowed the story of the fire that had killed 67 people in the Narrows and it overshadowed the story of the 6 stabbings in Crime Alley alone that night and it had overshadowed The Mad Hatter's escape form Arkham because he was Bruce Wayne's son, so Dick had all the proof in the world that he couldn't possibly have given in his homework but just to drive it in, he presented each teacher with note from Commissioner Gordon as well as the front page of the Gotham Gazette which had a well written article about his untimely snatching off the streets._

_Defacer and Pigeon had gone to jail. Pigeon had escaped 3 years later but Defacer had served her full 6 years and then moved to 'Haven._

_**END OF FLASHBACK** _

 

“So she just let you go?” Damian asked.

“Yep, pretty much.” Dick yawned, telling that story had tired him out considerably.

Bruce, brushed his hair away from his face “Why don't you get some sleep.”

“Yeah okay.” Dick settled down into his hospital bed.

“We're gonna go to hotel but we'll come back in the morning okay?”

“Okay.” By the time Dick had replied he was already fast asleep.

Bruce ushered his two sons out of the room, quietly and booked a hotel over the phone for a night.

 


	18. 7:00PM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that almost everything that I know about the US police is from watching 5 season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and 5 seasons of Gotham?

  **EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Blüdhaven General Hospital, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 01/05/2018**

 

“ _Mr and Mrs Dexton, I'm detective Amy Rohrbach and this is my partner Detective Richard Grayson.We're really sorry for your loss.” Dick heard Amy say to the weeping couple._

“ _My condolences.” Dick added, sincerely. Sammy had been their only kid, they'd been told Mrs Dexton couldn't even have kids and Sam had been a miracle baby and now he was gone._

_Sammy's mother smiled weakly at her, “Thank you. But please, call me Sandra.”_

“ _Okay, well Sandra is there anything you can tell me that might help us find out who did this? Did Sammy have any enemies? People who might want to hurt him? Did he mention anything or was he acting oddly?” Amy asked._

 _She sighed “He_ was _acting oddly but there's no one in the world who would want to hurt my Sammy, he's an angel!”_

“ _I'm sure he is ma'am,” Dick was careful with the tenses, he knew from experience that referring to recently dead people in the past tense was painful, especially when those close to the deceased was still using the present tense the way Sandra was,“but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have enemies. Some people are just like that. They don't like the good guys.”_

_Sam's father, Keenan Dexton, shook his head “If he had enemies we wouldn't know. He's- he was a teenage boy, he kept his secrets from his parents. I suspect you'd have more luck talking to his friends.”_

“ _Have you spoken to his friends?” Amy questioned. Of course Dick and Amy had spoken to his friends a bit but only one of them had really been helpful, the rest had just been depressing._

“ _We spoke to Aniyah, the poor girl's spent more time here than at home since we found out. She cried herself ragged. She kept saying that Sammy had been acting weird and how she should have noticed and said something. He was acting weird, I noticed too and I did nothing to help him.”_

_Keenan took her hand “You tried to speak to him about it.”_

“ _I didn't try hard enough! If I had tried harder, he might have told me what was going on and I could have helped him!”_

“ _Sandra, you can't blame yourself, it's not your fault.” Dick told her._

“ _Then whose fault is it?!”_

_Amy stood up straight “That's what we're here to find out.”_

_Dick nodded in agreement, he wanted to promise that they'd find Sammy's killer and bring them to justice but he'd learnt early on that that wasn't a promise you could always keep, instead he promised to try, just as he'd promised Aniyah he would try, “Mr and Mrs Dexton I swear to you I will try my very hardest to find who did this to your son.”_

_Sandra sobbed openly, tears streaming down her face “Thank you! Please, help my son.”_

* * *

Dick woke up to the sound of _'help my son'_ echoing in his ears and the sight of a pretty doctor, standing over his bed she had a blue and white striped, smart button down shirt which she paired with a pair of blue jeans, her lab coat and a pair of sensible flats. Her hair was very conservative, a simple pony tail on the back of her head and she had a stethoscope around her neck like this was a TV show. At the same time a male nurse dressed in red scrubs and a pair of moderately ugly nurse shoes changed his saline drip to the right of him.

“Doctor.” The nurse said, when he saw Dick was awake.

The doctor, who had been reading his file, looked up at him “Officer Grayson, I am Doctor Pankhurst, I removed the bullet from your shoulder and stitched you up.”

“Thank you.”

“Just doing my job.” She said quite coldly. She waited for the nurse to leave before continuing on, which left for an odd moment of silence “Officer Grayson. Last night we gave you some pain killers, do you remember that?”

“No. I don't really remember much from after I got shot.”

“Mmmm, you wouldn't. You reacted very... _strangely_ to them so I ordered a blood test. When the results came back they were very interesting.”

Pankhurst stared at Dick as if he was supposed to be understanding something. Blood work? Why would blood work be strange it wasn't like he was on drugs...oh. Realisation dawned on his face, “Um...I-”

“We found trace amounts of 10 of the deadliest and most addictive drugs in your system. How did you manage to do 10 of the deadliest drugs in, at most, the last 3 days?”

Dick's eyes shut, as he confirmed to her that he had indeed purposefully done drugs and it hadn't been some weird accident (like that first time had been) He sighed deeply, “It's a new street drug.”

“It's incredibly dangerous.”

“I know. _I know_.” He groaned, using his good arm to drag his hand down his face. He did know and yet he'd done it anyway. He'd done it multiple times.

“You're a police officer. You could have killed someone. People could die because you weren't at your best.”

“I know. I'm sorry.”

“Don't apologise to me, I don't care. You should be apologising to the victims whose cases might get overturned and the arrests that might be dropped because you were not in the right state of mind to do your job properly!”

Dick opened his eyes, “Are you going to tell anyone?!” He asked bewildered.

“No. Luckily for you, you're protected by Doctor-Patient confidentiality. But Richard, I propose you get some help. It worked out okay _this_ time but you're not going to get so lucky every time.”

“Lucky? I got shot.”

“And yet you live.” Doctor Pankhurst turned to leave “Press that red button if you're in distress and the green button if you need something. You can control the bed too, remote's on the table.”

“Wait!” Dick called “When can I get out of here?”

“Tomorrow after mid-day. We have to keep you for observation and to make sure your wound is healing correctly.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Without looking back she responded “Just doing my job.”  
  


**'The Boys'**

_**30/04/2018** _

**@RedRoy:** _DICK? You got shot!?? Are you okay?????_ ✓ ✓ 10:10

 

 **@Walman:** _Holy crap! Dick got shot?_ ✓ ✓ 10:11

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Tim just called, he says Dick's in surgery._ ✓ ✓ 10:15

 

 **@Walman:** _Holy hell! Is he going to be okay????_ ✓ ✓ 10:15

 

 **@RedRoy:** _It was a shoulder shot._ ✓ ✓ 10:15

 

 **@Walman:** _That's good right?_ ✓ ✓ 10:15

 **@Walman:** _As far as gun shots go?_ ✓ ✓ 10:15

 

 **@RedRoy:** _I think so. I'm looking this up_. ✓ ✓ 10:16

 **@RedRoy:** _Uuuuuuuh, what type of gun was it! How big were the bullets! Did it hit a vein or artery or bone or muscle? I don't know! There's too many variables!_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 

 **@Walman:** _I'm calling Bruce_. ✓ ✓ 10:23

 

 **@RedRoy:** _You'll stress him out!_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 

 **@Walman:** _I'M STRESSED OUT!_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 **@Walman:** _I need to know if he's ok!!!!!!!_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 **@Walman:** _!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 **@Walman:** _And he's probably already stressing_ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Okay._ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 **@RedRoy:** _Call him. Tell me what he says._ ✓ ✓ 10:23

 

 **@Walman:** _They're all on their way to Haven._ ✓ ✓ 10:59

 

 **@RedRoy:** _So they haven't actually seen or spoken to him yet?????_ ✓ ✓ 11:00

 

 **@Walman:** _The dr said he'll be okay tho._ ✓ ✓ 11:00

 **@Walman:** _They said they'd be there by midnight and they'd update us more then._ ✓ ✓ 11:01

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Okay. I guess I'll spend the next hour pretending to sleep._ ✓ ✓ 11:02

 

 **@Walman:** _I'm worried too._ ✓ ✓ 11:03

 **@Walman:** _But if anyone's going to pull through, it's gonna be Dick. You know he's a tough SoB._ ✓ ✓ 11:03

 

 **@RedRoy:** _I'm really glad you didn't say SoG_. ✓ ✓ 11:03

 

 **@Walman:** _*Laughing crying emoji*x5_ ✓ ✓ 11:03

 **@Walman:** _*Angry emoji*_ ✓ ✓ 11:04

 **@Walman:** _SON OF A GUN? WHEN HE JUST GOT SHOT !!!!!!_ ✓ ✓ 11:04

 **@Walman:** _I don't need puns /that/ much_ ✓ ✓ 11:04

 

_**01/05/2018** _

**@Walman:** _This just in, Dick just woke up after his surgery. He's gonna be fine!_ ✓ ✓ 00:50

 

 **@RedRoy:** _THANK GOD! Now I can rest in peace_ ✓ ✓ 00:51

 

 **@Walman:** _Too bad we can't go see him._ ✓ ✓ 00:51

 **@Walman:** _Also RIP, really Roy?_ ✓ ✓ 00:52

 

 **@RedRoy:** _THAT WASN'T ON PURPOSE!_ ✓ ✓ 00:52

 **@RedRoy:** _And yeah it's /too bad/ but we're so far away_. ✓ ✓ 00:52

 

 **@Walman:** _/If only/ there was /some way/ for all of us to be in Bludhaven in seconds flat._ ✓ ✓ 00:52

 

 **@RedRoy:** _/Too bad/ there's NOTHING like that._ ✓ ✓ 00:52

 

**…**

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** _Hey guys! I'm alive. I'm doing well. It wasn't that bad a wound._ ✓ ✓ 09:00

 

 **@RedRoy:** _DICKIE BIRD!_ ✓ ✓ 09:00

 

 **@Walman:** _I KNEW YOU'D BE OKAY!?_ ✓ ✓ 09:00

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** _I was reading through the chat. You guys do realise that technically there is something, multiple somethings, that can get people places really quick. Of course you couldn't use them but they exist._ ✓ ✓ 09:01

 **@Amazing Grayson:** - _Zeta beams_

_\- The Flash_

_\- Kid Flash_

_\- Superman_

 

 _Only the Justice League can use them but they still exist._ ✓ ✓ 09:03

 

 **@Walman:** _Yeah... too bad we're not part of the Justice League or any affiliated super hero teams and don't have access to those people/tech._ ✓ ✓ 09:04

 

 **@RedRoy:** _Yes too bad we're just regular old civilian folk with no special powers or skills._ ✓ ✓ 09:04

 

 **@AmazingGrayson:** _Why the fuck are you guys talking so weirdly? Did you both get head injuries since I got shot?_ ✓ ✓ 09:05

 

**…**

 

As promised Bruce and his brothers came back to the hospital and they just lounged around his hospital room, talking and making fun of each other (mainly Tim and Dami did the latter), it was nice to catch up, he hadn't been back to Gotham nearly as much as he had wanted to in order to see his family. He had missed this.

Eventually they did have to head back to Gotham, Bruce had pushed back a very important meeting to stay in 'Haven, Damien had school and Tim also had work at WE, but it had been nice to just see them.

Dick spent the rest of his time in the hospital, surfing the web on his phone; watching the terrible TV shows on the screen in his room, and just sleeping. He hadn't had a whole 8 hours of sleep in a long time so he was paying off some pretty large sleep debts right now.

The next day at Mid-day, Pankhurst put his arm in a sling, and made sure his stitches were intact and then he signed out and headed home. He informed Montoya he'd be back in work the following day and he was feeling the best he could with a gun shot wound in his shoulder.

 

_**iMessage:** _

**Captain Renee Montoya**

**Me:** I just got out of the hospital now, I'll be back at work tomorrow as normal.

 **Captain Montoya:** If you're feeling up for it, come by Shaw's. Me and a few other Captains in the area will be presenting bullet. I have yours too.

 **Me:** I'll be there! What time?

 **Captain Montoya:** Officially 7, maybe get there a little earlier though.

 **Me:** Understood.

 

Dick didn't know when, where or why 'presenting bullets' to officer had started. When an officer got shot in the line of duty there was an unofficial ceremony in which you Captain presented you with the bullet. Since it wasn't official it was usually at a bar and since it was in Blüdhaven it was usually Shaw's Bar. He'd accompanied Ben Collins to his bullets ceremony but this was Dick's first gun shot wound, which meant it was his first ceremony for himself. You got initiated into the Bullet Club by being shot, but it was confirmed at the ceremony. Gordon had once told Dick about the ceremony he had hosted _before_ he was Captain. The actual Captain had accidentally shot one of the officers and had failed to show up so since Gordon had been the highest ranking he'd done it. _“People make mistakes, the officers understand that. They'll respect you if you own it, apologise and try and see to it that it doesn't happen again. They don't respect cowardice. I saw it in her eyes when I handed her that bullet, I saw it in all their eyes. They were disappointed that he hadn't shown up. If there's one thing I can teach you before you head off to the academy Dick, it's don't be a coward.”_ Gordon had insisted that staying true to the oath of Serve and Protect could only truly be achieved by not being cowardly. Dick had taken that with him through the academy and into his career. It had served him well.

He Ubered home, showered in his own house which was nice although the weird waterproof bubble thing he had to put over his shoulder was really annoying to deal with. He sunk down on the sofa and learnt how to do his sling properly with one arm over the old Kanye episode of Family Feud. He didn't think he really needed a sling, it's not like his arm was broken, he just need to not move his shoulder so his stitches didn't tear but Dr Pankhurst had assured him without it he could easily make his injury worse and Dick wasn't about that.

When it was 6:30PM he climbed into his uniform, including the hat, that's how this worked, even though it wasn't official it was treated as if it were so that meant uniforms. He then ubered himself down to Shaw's Bar and got there at 6:50PM, 10 minutes before it started. Perfect.

He looked around, you could tell it was a presenting bullets ceremony form how many uniformed officers were milling about. A lot of them looked as green as Dick himself but a few were definitely Captains. You could pick them out from a crowd even if they weren't in uniform just from the way they carried themselves. He spotted Montoya talking to the Captains of the 98th precinct, the 69th precinct and the 75th precinct. Their precinct, the nine-nine, definitely had the best number. Lord have mercy if you work in the sixty-nine. Montoya spotted him and excused herself from the conversation full of straight, white, cis men to come talk to Dick... another straight, visually white (although he was actually Romani), cis male but a SWM who she outranked, which also wasn't that uncommon for her either since a large part of the police force was SWM. “How are you feeling?”

“All things aside,” he gestured to his sling “I actually feel great. The doc really fixed me up.”

“Good to hear it. Okay well you and Koby are the only ones from our squad, you've been a cop longer so you'll go first. We're going to line up glasses of whiskey on the bench, we're all going to present you with your bullets and then once everyone's done Captain Sanders will say a few words about bravery and he'll toast and we all drink.”

“Got it.”

“You ever been to one of these before?”

“I went to Ben's a while back.”

“Mmm, so you saw how it goes.” She gestured back at the group of Captains “I have to get back to kissing Sanders' ass, he's going up for commissioner soon and I want to be on his good side when he does.”

Dick laughed “Don't let me keep you.”

She returned back to the Captains and the other 'bullet boy' from the 9-9 floated towards Dick with a few other green looking officers. Officer Koby was there with his partner Officer Brandt. Koby and Brandt had been caught up in the middle of a gang shoot out and Koby had taken a clip to the leg, it had literally clipped him, grazed his thigh but it had left a mark and so here he was about to enter the Bullet Club. They all made small talk and Koby introduced him to the other officers from the other precincts and Dick was only too happy to talk since the newer you were the less dirty you were likely to be and besides, even in the force, networking was key. If you could call in a favour over some shared sense of brotherhood like being inducted into the bullet club on the same day, Dick would take every opportunity to get the chance. As he started talking he realised that Amy and Alexis were sitting at the bar, they both smiled at him and raised their beers in his direction, Dick smiled back, they were there for him. They'd both witness his initiation into the Bullet Club.

Soon 7 O'clock came around and the ceremony started. The whiskey was lined up on the bar and as you were handed your bullet you saluted your captain and collected a drink from the bar. When Montoya dropped the bullet into Dick's hand it really hit him that this could have killed him. He could have died two yesterday. The bullet was weighty in his hands, it was heavy even though it looked so small. She saluted him and he saluted back and then from behind her he grabbed the whiskey and stepped aside for Koby to do the same. For Koby to realise how close he was to having a bullet in his leg, it could have hit his femoral artery. He could have bled out in the middle of Haven's worst neighbour with his partner Brandt over him begging him not to die.

Officer Sanders picked up his own drink and the other Captain followed “We don't celebrate taking a bullet because it's cool or bad-ass, although some might argue that it is both of those things. We celebrate because we lived through it, we celebrate it because we took our duty to serve and protect one step further, we celebrate because we put our lives on the line to keep this city and everyone in it safe. We celebrate because through every bullet we take, we take back our city. Take a sip for those who have entered the bullet club and were not so lucky to be here with us today.” They all took a sip “May they rest in peace. Now here's to us. Seven-five!” He gulped his whiskey down, as did they other members of the 75.

Captain Briand held up his own glass “Six-Nine!” And they all drank.

Captain Grace did the same “Nine-Eight!”

And then Montoya did her's “Nine-Nine!”

Dick and Koby both skulled their drinks and when everyone was done they all cheered. They were all officially part of The Unofficial Bullet Club.

 


	19. You're Not 100%

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99 th Precinct, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 02/05/2018**

 

Captain Montoya had called him into her office, as soon as he had gotten in that morning, which usually wasn't a good sign but Dick assumed it had something to do with him being shot or with the super secret case they were working on which had led to many clandestine meetings in her office. “Dick, I didn't mention this to you yesterday because you were just out of the hospital and it was your presenting bullets ceremony and I didn't want to mess that up for you, but I'm going to have to take you off the case and assign you to desk duty.”

“What? Captain! You can't take me off this case!”

“Dick you're injured.”

“Only in the arm, I can still _work_ on this!”

“This is a huge case.”

“Which is why you need me on it! No one knows this case as well as I do! You need everyone on this!”

“I need my _best_ people on this."

 

"I am your best people!"

 

 _"Everyone_ needs to be at 100%. You are not at 100% right now.”

 

For a second Dick wondered if Pankhurst had lied and she had told the Captain about the drugs she'd found in his system, but she didn't seem to be talking about that, she really was just referring to his injury, “Captain _please_ ,” He pleaded, “you can't take me off of this!”

“I can and I am.”

“I promised Aniyah that I would do everything I could to get justice for Sammy. I promised his parents! I can't just walk away from this!”

“You're not walking away, I'm ordering you away.”

“Captain pl-”

“That's an _order_ Grayson. You're on desk duty and you're off the case. Understood?”

Dick closed his eyes and sighed loudly through his nose, as angry as he was with this situation, there was nothing he could do. “Yes Ma'am.” dejectedly, he sulked back to his desk, arm in sling and slumped into his seat.

“What's up?” Amy asked, feeling Dick's bad energy in droves from her desk.

“Montoya took me off the case.”

“What?! Because of you're injury?”

“That's what she said.”

“But you're the only one who knows the case as well as Alexis and I do.”

“That's what I said! She was adamant, I can't work the case with a busted arm.”

“I'm gonna go talk to her. No way are you off this case.” She leapt up, stormed into the Captain's office and through the glass Dick could see the two women arguing back and forth. Amy pointed repeatedly at Dick and once at where Alexis was situation at the coffee machine, making a fresh pot of 'coffee' for everyone. After a few minutes Montoya very audibly, even from outside where he was sitting, ordered Rohrbach out of her office and rendered the matter closed. Several officers turned around as Amy exited and stormed back to her desk. She huffed loudly, exhaling a great puff of air from her nose “No luck. She's steadfast.”

Dick sighed as well, although a little more sad than angry “Thanks for trying, Amy.” A small smile appeared on his face “Looks like you will fight my battles for me after all.”

“Get a hold of your self, I did it for the sake of the case.”

“ _Suuuure._ ”

“God, you really do have a big head Grayson.”

 


	20. 1st Time, Last Time, This Time.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Josh who were completely new to the case were going to the raid and Dick would be stuck in 'Haven. 
> 
> It was unfair to say the least

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don't know how the police work.

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: A Highway in Blüdhaven, USA**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

Yesterday, Amy had told Dick that herself, Alexis, Ben and Josh would be heading up to Star City for the raid today. Ben and Josh who were completely new to the case were going to the raid and Dick would be stuck in 'Haven. Dick had been in the office completely miserable when he had seen the squad roll out and longed to join them, even if he was just sitting in the van outside, he'd even sent the Captain a pleading look through her office window but she had just shaken her head, mouthing 'Not 100%' at him. Amy did give him a sympathetic smile on her way out, as did Alexis but that only served to make Dick feel even worse.

It certainly didn't help that Dick had been left dealing with DUIs and speeders on the highway all day because Montoya had had the foresight to get him out of the office that day, just so he wouldn't go completely stir crazy. Of course sitting in a car that was either too hot or too cold and had terrible smelling air con either way was hardly any better that sitting in the precinct and was doing absolutely nothing to stave off Dick's cabin fever and to make matters worse every speeder was an utter asshole, insisting they hadn't been going over the speed limit, even the dipshit doing 110 in a 70 zone because _of course he didn't realise how fast he was going_ and _he swears he was only doing 65_ as if the dunce didn't realise he was 30 mph off double the speed limit.

He got mission updates from Stewart though, since they'd all conveniently failed to mention to him that Dick was off the case, which helped a little but it also made him unendingly nervous when he didn't get an update in case Stewart had realised he wasn't on the case anymore and had stopped CCing him into the updates.

The newest update had revealed that they finally had eyes on Winston De Caro and they actually knew what he looked like and Omero 'Bruno' De Caro had introduced Alexis to his brother Macario 'Big Mac' De Caro as well as a whole bunch of other criminal types that had set off alarms in Dick's head. Dick was glad the case was going well, they had just gotten the first confirmed pictures of Winston De Caro for God's sake, that was amazing! It meant even if they couldn't move on him today, they could get him in the future at least, they knew what he looked like. Stewart and Sihg had loads of evidence against the Star City branch of the mob but they had no faces to tie it to until today, only names. After an hour of no updates Dick figured the worst must have happened, Matt Stewart cut him off.

All in all this whole event was making him miserable and paranoid and pretty depressed as well as extremely bored and once work was over and he'd gone home and Montoya had told him to stay out of the case and not to do anything stupid, he had even less to do then just sitting in his car waiting for idiots to drive passed him. His eyes fell onto his mattress where his secret stash of Retro was hidden underneath it. Amy still hadn't noticed it missing. No one had reported it. He had nothing to do that day so why the fuck not? He locked his gun, phone and walkie talkie away, this time putting it into the next room so he wouldn't respond to a call whilst high like last time. He couldn't believe that after last time there was a 'this time'.

This would be much better than last time and the time before that, this was a much better idea than before.

Obviously.

He had complete control over this situation, he wouldn't be doing this other wise.

He would never get addicted, not after what he'd seen Roy go through.

He knows what an addict looked like and Dick wasn't on of them.

Absolutely not.

 


	21. I'm 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I only started because we needed the money. She said not to worry, that she could handle it but I saw the bills. We were this close to losing the apartment until Sammy got me this gig, ma never asks where I get the money from so long as it keeps the lights on. If I don't do this, what are we supposed to do? She gets paid jack shit, we're barely keeping up as it is.”
> 
> Shawn had cut out of the conversation after hearing the name 'Sammy', where did that sound so familiar? _Sammy, Sammy, Sammy_ “Sammy Dexton?”
> 
> “Yeah! You know him?”
> 
> “I heard he died.”

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Club PRYSM, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

Shawn's shop had ended up in a magazine, it was a small time Blüdhaven centric magazine but it was her first bit of _actual_ press, she'd gotten a few extra sales since and Shawn was crazy happy so she'd gotten Brendan and Pamela to come out and celebrate with her. They ended up in a club that was pretty popular in 'Haven, it was a drug hotspot but it's not like any of them would be doing any drugs so that didn't worry her. Ashes on Sunday, a band that was famously pro-Gotham, came on over the stereo everyone started dancing and whooping. They weren't exactly 'club music' but Blüdhaven and Gotham shared a certain camaraderie and any band that loved Gotham was usually a hit in the Gotham-'Haven area. Dick had mentioned that their contact/drug dealer worked out of PRYSM and Shawn had been there enough times to pick up on who was a criminal and who was not, her time in jail had educated her on the ways of criminals, plus she'd been curious enough to ask around a few years back so she knew this was Bruno's stomping ground and she also knew that Dick had been taken off the case and she also knew he'd been very miserable that day when she had called him about meeting up next week to go see Avengers: Infinity War which must mean something big with the case was going down and Dick was missing it. She made a mental note to text him when she found herself a seat (so she could keep an eye on her drink and make sure no one spiked it) and looked around for whoever Bruno sent as his replacement because no way would any smart dealer let his turf be left unattended, even for a night.

He was pretty easy to pick out in the crowd, he was nervous, a bit sweaty and very jumpy, looking at everyone like they were cops. He looked surprisingly young, like they'd plucked him straight out of high school. She'd hardly been out of high school herself when she'd fallen in with Pigeon. This was not the age you wanted to get in trouble at, not when you get out several years later with a record and no life or work experience; it was a bad spot to get into. Shawn found herself gravitating towards the poor kid and she yelled at him over the club music “Hey kid what's your name?”

He looked terrified, poor lamb, and his eyes widened “Um-I-uh-my name- uh- I'm Tyrone.” he gasped, “Fuck I'm not supposed to say my name! I'm Darius! My name is Darius! Call me Darius! Please don't tell Bruno!”

She smiled at him, reassuringly “Don't worry kid, I won't tell anyone. So _Darius,_ how old are you?”

“Um... I'm 16.”

“16???!!!” Damn, he was younger than she'd thought, younger than she had been when she'd gotten into the crime game. Then again selling drugs was a lot less niche than defacing art to get back at rich people. “I was 18 when I started doing actual jailable crimes.”

“You do crimes?”

“Did crimes. Went to jail too. 6 years of my life down the drain and when I got out life was even harder. Nobody helps you when you got a record. No one wants to hire you and that's coming from me, a white women who for the most part committed non-violent crimes.

Tyrone sighed “And I'm a black man from a bad hood. I don't really have a lot of option.”

Shawn bit back the _'You're 16 dude, you're not a man'_ that was on the tip of her tongue, she didn't want to insult or alienate the kid, she was trying to convince him to drop crime “Trust me when I say the record isn't worth it. Nothing's worth having your life ruined so young.”

“My life's already ruined.”

“Your life isn't over till you die, you're 16, you haven't lived long enough to ruin it just yet.”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“I don't _want_ to be here. I don't want to do this anymore, but if I don't Bruno said he'd hurt my ma.”

“They threatened your mom?”

“I only started because we needed the money. She said not to worry, that she could handle it but I saw the bills. We were _this_ close to losing the apartment until Sammy got me this gig, ma never asks where I get the money from so long as it keeps the lights on. If I don't do this, what are we supposed to do? She gets paid jack shit, we're barely keeping up as it is.”

Shawn had cut out of the conversation after hearing the name 'Sammy', where did that sound so familiar? Sammy, Sammy, Sammy “Sammy Dexton?”

“Yeah! You know him?”

“I heard he died.” Dick mentioned him. Mentioned his girlfriend, and his parents and all his friends at school, not by name of course but he needed someone to talk about the emotional things about being a cop that a lot of the male cops at the station hated talking about. Apparently even Amy for the most part wasn't all to big on talking about their feelings, the time they spent together was usually filled with actual crime solving and didn't leave much time for heart-to-hearts so he'd come to Shawn during their movie nights and their hang outs.

“I- yeah. He was a really good guy.”

Shawn also kept quiet about how she'd heard that the mob had killed him and she stayed even quieter about the cop she'd heard it from. She really didn't want to spook this kid, but how was she supposed to convince him that he'd be safe to leave the business, Shawn couldn't guarantee that, if he died because of what she had said to him - That would kill her. “If you ever get the chance to get out of the game, you should. I know your mom needs the cash but if you get caught for this? You go to jail and she's left on her own fending for herself again. Educate yourself at school or get good at a sport, try and get a scholarship. Get your education and get a good job and then you can buy her everything she's ever wanted. I suggest computer science.”

“I'm not smart enough for a scholarship. And I know nothing about computers!”

“No one starts off with the knowledge, you have to study, work hard, spend less time in the streets selling and more time studying.”

“I can't afford all the text books.”

“Go to the library, or if you know any nice teachers ask them if you can borrow any books from the school. I don't want to preach at you, we came from very different situations but I know all too well what getting caught means. You have 2 years to turn your life around, I suggest you take this chance.”

“Thank you.”

Shawn sent him a small smile “So where's Bruno anyways?”

“He's at some party in Star, I don't know, he doesn't tell _me_ things. I'm just a grunt.”

“Fair enough.”

“But get this, word on the street is that it's a big set up.”

“What?”

“They got word on the street that some cops were on to them so they invited the undercover cop to the party and when the other cops raid 'em they gonna fuck 'em up.”

“It's a trap?”

“Yeah, pretty cool right.”

Shawn didn't know how to reply, the raid he was referring to was most definitely the one Dick was supposed to be at, the one all his friends were at, and other officers trying to take down a dangerous drug cartel and inducted people as young as Sammy and Tyrone. Kids. These boys were children and they were in the streets and in clubs selling drugs, how did this kid even get into the club anyways? Clearly the club owner or the bouncer or someone was on the mob's pay roll. “Yeah. Pretty cool.” As if they'd heard her silent begging Pam and Brendan appeared with their drinks and Shawn used them as an excuse to exit the conversation, she needed to warn Dick. He had to know what was about to happen. “Tyrone I'm gonna go, it was nice talking to you though. Remember what I said, you don't want this life.”

He smiled sadly “Who does?”

Shawn was torn between talking to this kid more and leaving to warn Dick but there were lives at stake here so she settled for giving him her Run-Offs business card and headed to the bathroom where it was much quieter and dialled Dick's phone. He didn't answer after the first 5 times so she did the only thing she could do at this point. She left the club, bidding Giz and Mouse goodbye as she did and high tailed it to Dick's apartment. She'd only been their a few times, they usually hung out at hers or out and about but she knew which one was his from muscle memory alone. She knew his key code because it was in her nature to watch when people typed passwords and it was in his nature to trust her not to use it against him so she jammed her fingers into each key until the door buzzed open. She ran up the stairs because Dick's elevator was broken (she didn't even have to check, he'd been complaining about it all week) she pounded on his door desperately. He had to warn everyone that it was a trap. They'd all die otherwise.

“Dick!” She yelled at him when he hadn't opened up for a full 30 seconds. It wasn't very long but time was of the essence. “Dick open your damn door! This is important!”

She'd been screaming and technically she'd been screaming profanities, she doubted many of his neighbours called him Dick, so she wasn't surprised when a neighbour popped her head out to inspect what was going on, phone in hand, ready to call the police. “Sorry,” she said to the older lady “I just really need to speak to Grayson, it's important.”

“I've seen you around here, you're a friend of Richard's.”

“Yes I am! I'm Shawn.”

“I'm Dolly Montague, his neighbour.”

“It's nice to meet you. Sorry to cut to the chase but I really need to speak to him, is he in?”

“I believe so.”

“It's urgent. A matter of life or death.”

Dolly paused for a second, as if considering her options, she seemed to have decided something because she disappeared back into her apartment and came back out with a key “It's Richard's spare key.”

“You'll let me use it?”

“He's a police officer, so I'm more inclined to believe any issue you have is actually life or death. But I’m keeping an eye on you. I won't hesitate to call the police.” She warned as she handed over the key.

“Thank you so much. I will repay you one day, I swear!” She unlocked the door and entered Dick's apartment. It was very different from the last time she'd been there. Maybe it was because she was there without permission but it felt a lot colder, less friendly. Most of the lights were off, she wondered if maybe Dick _had_ gone out until she saw the lights protruding from underneath Dick's bedroom door. “Dick?” She knocked. There was no answer but there was a shuffle. She definitely knew he was in there. She weighed the possibility of her busting in on him wanking or wooing a girl vs a bunch of his cop friends dying and decided she'd have to risk it. She breathed out purposefully and swung open the door “Dick.”

Dick looked at her like a deer caught in the head lights.

“Oh my God.” There was one line of white powder on Dick's desk and something told her that he'd already snorted at least one.

“It's not what it looks like.” He exclaimed.

“It looks like your doing cocaine!”

He nose exhaled, humourlessly, which blew his perfect drug line a little off “Well technically it's not what it looks like.”

“What are you doing Dick?!”

“...Retro.”

“Retro? The extremely dangerous drug that knocked you out for half a day? The _super_ deadly, _highly_ addictive- YOU GOT _ADDICTED_!? Oh my God, you got addicted to Retro! This is _so_ bad! This is _so_ _ **extremely**_ bad! Not only has it killed people but you're a _cop_! If people find out, you're done for! This is illegal! So incredibly illegal, 10x more illegal than cocaine! I would _prefer_ it if you were doing cocaine!” She wanted to grab him and shake some sense into him but this wasn't the time for an intervention “Dick, this can all wait, we have more pressing issues.”

“We do?”

“It's a trap! They know you planted a mole in the mob at the party and they plan to shoot all the cops at the raid.”

“They know!? Holy crap! Alexis is in huge danger!”

“You need to tell them to pull her out.”

Dick nodded and ran into the other room, she followed a bit confused but understood when he unlocked his lock box and pulled out his phone and his walkie talkie he first called Amy and when that didn't work he tried Matt and then Jerry and then Josh and Ben. As a last ditch attempt he tried Alexis. “Fuck! None of them are answering!” He closed his eyes trying to think of a plan and then called Montoya, the Captain would have an idea. She would know what to do. Thankfully she picked up and he explained to her the situation.

They could hear her frown over the phone before she even spoke again, “I can't reach them either. If they know we're coming we can assume they have some sort of signal jammer so we can't talk to them.”

“So how are we supposed to warn them?” Shawn asked.

“We gotta drive up to Star and warn them.” Dick announced.

“ _Or_ we can call an officer already in Star, like their Captain, and-”

“Don't! Their Captain's dirty! That's why they don't digitalise, their captain won't back them like you backed us. He might just warn them that we know.”

Montoya was silent for a second “So our only choice is you driving two hours to Star City and warning them?”

“If I go full lights and sirens I can cut it down by at least half an hour.”

Montoya sighed “You can drive with your arm like that?”

“Yeah.” Dick lied, it was only technically a lie, it hurt like a mother fucker but he could do it “I was on speeding duty today, remember.”

“Ok. Do it.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

They hung up and Dick grabbed his uniform and his gun and badge “Wait.” Shawn stopped him, “Take me with you.”

“Shawn, I can't bring you along to an active investigation like that.”

“You're high as a fucking kite. You shouldn't even be _driving_ yet alone doing police work!”

She had a point “Fine, but you're shot gun.”

“Can we make a pit stop on the way?”

“A pit stop? We're in a hurry!”

“We're driving by the church anyways and I'll be super fast.”

Dick threw up his hands in surrender as they ran back down the stairs to his car, “Okay fine.”

He turned on the sirens and whizzed over to Run Offs HQ where as promised Shawn was in and out in a flash and then they raced of to Star City. His car was a regular plain cloth car but it was fitted with sirens so every car that could move out of the way, got out of the way. The Retro made Dick hyper focused on the task, which happened to be getting from point A to point B as fast as possible; they ran red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road and made turns in places they weren't supposed to, they actually managed to shave 40 minutes off the usual journey making the trip 1 hour and 20 minutes and the reduced traffic of the odd timing definitely made things easier.

As they approached the area Dick turned the sirens and lights off so he wouldn't alert the gangsters of their presence.

Dick hadn't been privy to the raid plans so he didn't know where the surveillance people were parked, and he knew they'd probably be hidden. “Shawn, we need to locate the teams. I wasn't on the case so I don't know where they're hiding.”

“You mean we don't know where they are?”

“Not technically.”

“God damn. Can we still call each other?”

“Drop call me.”

She got out her phone and dialled him “It's not a drop call if I already have your number and vice versa.” But the call went through and Dick's phone rang in his pocket. “Okay we can still talk. I think we need to split up and look for them.”

“I second that.”

Shawn grabbed whatever she'd taken from the church over an hour ago and hopped out, “Stay in contact.”

He gave her a mock salute as she left and she returned it with a stressed and nervous smile. “Will do.”

 


	22. No EARTH-25 Equivalent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Step away from the criminal.” Jerry growled, gun aimed at her.
> 
> “I'm not standing anywhere near _your_ partner.” Amy shot back, raising her own gun to him.
> 
> Jerry's eyes squinted with mistrust, “Are you in on it too?”
> 
> "I should be asking you the same question."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of y'all have twitter you should follow my new 'Let's Talk' account for Artemis of Bana-Mighdall which is: Let’s Talk Artemis of Bana-Mighdall @Artemis_Amazon
> 
> https://twitter.com/Artemis_Amazon

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Somewhere in Star City, USA**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

Dick had been driving around looking for officers he recognised or suspicious looking undercover surveillance vans for 20 minutes and he was getting more stressed by the second, it didn't help that the Retro was wearing off and Dick was getting antsy form withdrawal alone- I mean not withdrawal, because that's something addicts go through. Just a regular come-down, like a hang over. Shawn checked in every 5 minutes and she was having no better luck on the vehicle front which was not reassuring.

Suddenly his phone started buzzing like crazy. He checked it and saw several updates from Stewart come in. Of course. He hadn't stopped sending them, they just hadn't been able to escape the jammer bubble surrounding them. But that meant Dick was in the jammer bubble. He tried a test call to Shawn and there was no result. He reverse out of the bubble until the call went through and then sent Shawn a text of his address explaining the bubble really quickly, he might have used the bubble emoji, so what? He was high.

He read through the updates as he drove which was NOT a good thing to do but he was trying to stop cops from walking into a trap here and time was of the essence.

Most of the updates were just identifying more people in the crime game, a few were about everyone's positions. And then a new one came in.

 

**UPDATE: _Everyone get read to move in exactly 5 minutes, count down over radio, closer to time._**

 

Oh no. They were getting ready to move. Dick changed gears, there was no point looking for them, he needed to head straight for the party even if it meant throwing himself in front of a door to stop them from entering.

 

**UPDATE: _Word from Alex, everyone move to Entrance B. Snipers to position A._**

 

Dick didn’t know which door was B but he did know making everyone use the same entrance was usually _not_ a good move. And in this reverse raid it would cause a bottle neck situation which would make the police so much easier to shoot at. Alexis must be compromised to give that suggestion. Dick needed to move fast. He found the house, it was a huge property and judging by the lack of police in tactical gear he must be at the wrong entrance, he tried to door, of course it was locked but the wall had one of those pretty looking vine yard criss cross wooden things that looked perfect for climbing even if it was covering in plants and crap. Dick figured he could jump down from the height of the wall, it was pretty tall, at least double his height, but he was an ex-acrobat, he could stick the landing.

He scaled the wall with relative ease and found himself on a roof where he saw that all the regular guests (if they'd ever been there) had cleared out and everyone left was aiming guns at 'Entrance B'. Alexis was being held in front of Winston De Caro with Big Mac and Bruno by his side. Bruno seemed to be giving her a witty villain monologue and Winston had a gun to her head, using her as a human shield for when the first wave of cops came through.

 

**UPDATE: _1 minute till breach._**

 

Dick needed to act fast.

They were all facing away from him so Dick managed to get back to the ground, inside the property and duck behind a wall without anyone seeing him.

He counted down a minute and as the door got breached Dick sprung up and yelled “NOBODY SHOOT!” He had his gun to Winston's head. The officers managed to enter unharmed and were all surprised to see the mob standing their waiting for them and Dick with his gun to Winston's head. Matt Stewart entered dead last “Okay here's what's gonna happen. Any mobsters are gonna put their guns down or your boss gets two in the head.”

The mobsters all exchanged looks, one stocky fella scoffed “You ain't gonna shoot someone point blank like that with your cop friend watching.”

“You want to test that theory? Your boss has a hostage. And aren't you De Caros in the business of dirty cops?” That seemed to get to them, why would they expect Dick to have morals when the cops on their pay roll seemed to have none. The stocky guy slowly put his gun down. The rest seemed to follow. “Winston, that means you too. Gun down.”

Amy had her hands up, leaning back slightly from being held with her head further back than where her feet where planted, it wasn't accidental, it threw the hostage off balance, made it harder to get leverage and escape. “You're gonna have to try harder kid. My guys may believe that you'd shoot me in the head but my contact on the inside says you're a good guy. A goodie-two shoes who sees himself as the next James Gordon.”

The Jim-Dick connection did narrow down who the mole could be. Everyone in Blüdhaven knows that they know each other, Amy had accused him of working for him and he'd texted it to Matt when he was high the first time. He could rule out Matt and Amy but that left a multitude of dirty cops in 'Haven. Dudley Soames, Hank Hogan, Jamie Blake, basically everyone and anyone. It didn't narrow it down at all. “Jim Gordon didn't start off as pristine as he is now, you know.”

He laughed “So you're saying even good cops have a few skeletons in their closet? And I'd be yours? I'm honoured.”

“Put the gun down and step away. We have you and your men surrounded.”

“I knew about your plant.” He gestured at Alexis again “I knew about your raid, what makes you think I wasn't prepared for a last moment hero cop trying to save the day.”

“What?” Dick asked confused. No one knew he was coming except Montoya and Shawn.

“Duck.”

Dick's eyes widened as the message hit him, he leapt to the side and rolled on the floor, grabbing a table, turning it on its side and using it as a shield just as a spray of bullets rushed through the space he had occupied just seconds before “SNIPER!” He yelled, everyone scattered for cover which gave the criminals a second to grab their guns back and start shooting. Winston dragged Alexis a bit, using her as a shield still and she struggled but she was in heels and he had the upper hand and a gun to her head so it was an upwards struggle and she wasn't going to succeed. As soon as Winston got far enough back he shoved her forward and shot her in the foot so she wouldn't follow, she screamed in pain.

Dick streaked passed her, after Winston De Caro, no way was he escaping after shooting Alexis and initiating kids into his gang, the Retro was starting to wear off and Dick could feel the slight fatigue, the tiredness that always followed. Usually he went to bed after but the adrenaline kept him racing across the huge yard and after the fleeing De Caro.

He chased him into the small alley between the fences of the two properties and run around the corner, gun drawn but pointed at the ground, he ran around the corner and directly into a gun. He stared down the barrel cursing himself for falling for something so dumb as 'he was waiting around the corner'. But then his eyes followed the gun to the hand and the hand to the arm and the arm to the body. It wasn't Winston pointing a gun at his face, it was Matt fucking Stewart. “Matt?”

“You should be more careful with who you trust.”

“You're the mole. How could you do this? I thought we were friends after we reconnected. I trusted you! ”

“You were a case Dick. You think I just turned up in Blüdhaven by coincidence?”

“You have a daughter! How can you look at her knowing everything you're doing? You're making her city and her future more dangerous!”

“MY DAUGHTER HAS NO FUTURE! My baby girl died 3 years ago because of some idiot gun happy cops. Do you know what they got? A slap on the wrist and a month desk duty. That's it! It's bullshit! My little girl is dead and they get off Scott free!” It suddenly dawned on Dick why Stewart's maths when telling him his daughters age had been so off before, Dick had assumed he hadn't know _Dick's_ age but he had been right, that was probably the only thing he'd been honest about since they'd reunited. “And on top of all that I have black people telling me I'm a racist pig when I've never shot any of those damn niggers for something they didn't deserve!” Dick winced, he wondered if at gun point was the wrong time to point out that saying the N-word was VERY strong evidence that he was, in fact, racist, “I get paid a pittance while the fat cats in Capitol Hill earn millions and then they raise my healthcare prices and my taxes. I need money Dick. Where else was I supposed to get it?”

“Why are you telling me all this. Why not just shoot me, you're going to kill me anyway.”

“I need you to know this because I _am_ sorry.”

“You're not sorry.” Dick scoffed, shaking his head, his face curling up in disgust “If you were sorry you wouldn't be doing this. When you go home tonight I want you to think of your daughter. She's looking down at you right now and she's sad- sad that she'll _always_ be looking down at you because you're going straight to hell for this.”

“You don't think I've already thought about that? I need the money, my parents are in a home now, my ex-wife has cancer. I have people who need me.”

“So do I. You lost your kid, I'm somebody's kid too.”

“What, Wayne? Oh boo hoo, he's fucking loaded.”

“He lost his parents when he was 10, his son died not 4 years ago. My adopted brother and I are both orphans. Our family is _literally_ built on death. Please, don't do this again.”

“If it's built on death, they should be used to it by now.” He sighed “I'm sorry about your crappy life and your dead parents and your brother but you're still 10 times luckier than I'll ever be. You're fucking rich. I can't even afford to fill my car with gas all the way. Something had to be done to even it out, that's just the way the world works.”

“You could have asked me for money! I would have given it to you! Instead your signing hundreds of people's death warrants! Kids Matt! Kids are dying! Kids have _already_ died!”

“I know about Sam Dexton, don't try to guilt me. It won't work.”

“You're angry at those cops for killing you child, you killed a child. You! His parents expect me to punish the people responsible. You're so mad at the system for not punishing those guys. I'm trying to do the right thing here, I'm doing the thing they should have done.”

“It's too late.”

“It's not too late! That's not fair to his parents!”

“Life isn't fair, sometimes the good guys lose.”

“And sometimes the good guys are ex-cons.” They both looked up to see Defacer grapple over the neighbours fence and land in front of Dick, knocking Stewart's gun out of his hand as she did so, and punching him square in the jaw. She grinned at Dick “This is what I picked up from HQ.” She explained gesturing at her costume. “Just in case.” She was dressed in an old school electric blue leotard with an Electra style mask pulled up around her mouth and nose; her teal hair sticking up in a cute Japanese looking bun. She punched Matt again until he submitted and as the sound of heavy footsteps approached them, Winston, who had been standing there watching the drama play out (who didn't like good drama) legged it to his get away car.

Dick went to pursue once again when Matt called out to the approaching cops “He's dirty! He knew our whole plan and leaked it to the De Caros!”

“WHAT?!” Dick exclaimed. Was he being framed right now?

“Check his phone, he has every update I sent! And his Captain kicked him off the case.” He pointed at Shawn “This is a known criminal in Gotham, they're allies.”

Shawn scowled “Hang on just a minute-”

He continued “And I guarantee if you test his blood right now, you'll find Retro in his system.”

Dick's eyes widened how did he know that? Was this some sort of elaborate rouse to get him hooked to drugs so he could frame him? That makes no sense, there's no way he could have known what Alexis would do, unless Alexis was also dirty and it _wasn't_ an accident. “Amy, you gotta trust that I'm not dirty, you know why the Captain took me off the case.”

She nodded “It's because he got shot in the line of duty and was put on desk duty.”

Matt scoffed “When you get shot, you get put on desk duty, you don't get taken off the case altogether.”

Dick pointed at Stewart “ _He's_ the dirty cop, _he_ let Winston get away.”

“I've spent years on this case trying to _catch_ Winston, why would I let him get away!” Matt yelled from the ground.

Jerry asked, “Grayson, if you're off the case, why are you here?”

“I got word that this was a set up.”

“Well duh, you helped us plan some of this.”

“No I mean, they knew about Alexis and they held her at gun point and told her to give faulty info to get everyone to Entrance B so they could bottle neck you guys and kill everyone.”

Alexis winced “I never gave any information that would move anyone to Entrance B.”

Dick frowned “But you did move to Entrance B right.” He asked the other officers.

They nodded

“Why.”

“Because Stewart told us to.”

“But why did he change the plan?”

“He didn't... that was always the plan.”

 

Dick stared at them. And his eyes widened. This whole this was just one huge set up. Matt was gaslighting him. And when they arrested him because he wasn't making any sense right now, at least to them, they'd test his blood and find Retro and his fate would be sealed. “Wait, okay. I know how this looks but before I started this case I had no contact with the De Caros, Stewarts had years to build up contacts.”

“I've had years to try and stop them. That's what I do. Someone arrest him!”

“Arrest him!” Dick pointed back.

Amy came in close and whispered “Dick do you have any evidence of anything you're saying?”

Dick fumbled for his phone, the message about Entrance B, that would prove he wasn't making this up.

 

It wasn't there.

 

_No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no._

 

The message wasn't there. How can this be possible. “How-?” he stopped, “She knows I didn't do this!” He pointed at Shawn.

Matt snorted “A known criminal? Who you're apparently best friends with? I don't think so. Arrest them both, she's clearly his accomplice.”

Jerry stepped forward to arrest him and Amy stepped between them “No fucking way.” The two partners were at a stand off. Everyone watched in silence as the two squared off.

“Step away from the criminals.”

“I'm not standing anywhere near your partner.” She shot back.

Jerry's eyes squinted “Are you in on it too?”

Shawn was getting very nervous. She couldn't be arrested again, she couldn't go back to jail. She couldn't. She couldn't. She wouldn't. This was her worst nightmares coming true all because she'd tried to help a damn cop. “Dick?” she whispered.

“Yeah?” He replied quietly.

“We need to find Winston.”

“We do.”

“We can't from a cell.”

Dick sent her a look “What?”

“Let's get out of here.”

“I don't know...”

“Everyone's distracted.”

“Amy's sticking her neck out for me right now, I can't leave. I trust the system.”

“Everyone in the force is corrupt Dick. Everyone in the courts, and the jury's biased against both of us already. The system isn't right. I can't go back to jail.”

Dick looked over at her, he recognised that same terrified look from the day she'd come to his office to report a crime, she was scared. Plain and simple. This was everything she hated. And they _did_ need to find Winston. And she did have a point about the system, she was right. They never found his Jason's murderers, they got off scott free too. The system failed people all the time because the system was flawed. “What's you plan?”

“Grapple like Green Arrow and Black Canary combined.”

Dick sighed “Do it.” She grabbed him by the waist, and repelled up the wall using the rope that was attached to the other side of the fence. At the top Dick yelled “I'm not dirty, sorry about this Amy.” And then he disappeared over the fence. One officer shot a bullet but was shooting almost straight up into the air which just led to the officers below scrambling and covering their heads since falling bullets could be just as bad if it hit you. They all yelled at him because that's something you're _not_ supposed to do. “Oh my God. I'm a fugitive. We're fugitives. Shawn I am so sorry I dragged you into this mess.”

She sighed “It's okay, I owed you after all for solving that crime.”

“You don't owe me anything.”

“Do you _want_ me to be mad at you?”

“True. Let's go before they figure out how to get into this garden.” The took off, grappling over rooftops like some sort of supernatural bat man or something, there was really no Earth-25 equivalent to the action they were doing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're on the run, that ain't good.
> 
> You know it's funny, in my files I name each chapter of this fic 'The Kids Aren't Alright n' with n being the chapter number so if I feel like there's a missing scene that doesn't fit with any of the other chapters and I need to go back and add it I'll name the chapter n.5 with n still being a number but it means the number of chapters that I have is different from the number I called a chapter.
> 
> I mean it's not really funny, I just wanted to say it.


	23. There Were 8 Bags.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "In every report Milano and Rohrbach both say there were 8 backs of Retro. Grayson says 8 in the first report and 7 every time after that. Evidence only logged 7 bags.”
> 
> “You suspect he took it.”
> 
> “I'd be a piss poor detective if I didn't.”

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: 99th Precinct, Bl **ü** dhaven **

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

“Tell me everything you know about Dick Grayson.” Captain Montoya hissed into her phone.

“Excuse me?”

“I will not be played a fool by you and Lowe and _whoever else_ wants to cover for him. Who the fuck is he? Who are his parents?”

“I can't say, Montoya. Why do you want to know?”

“Why do I want to know? _WHY_ DO I WANT TO KNOW?! Grayson, Rohrbach and Milano went undercover to buy drugs. In every report Milano and Rohrbach both say there were 8 backs of Retro. Dick says 8 in the first report and 7 every time after that. Evidence only logged 7 bags.”

“You suspect he took it.”

“I'd be a piss poor detective if I didn't.”

“That's not proof of anything, it's circumstantial.”

“Oh, so did my other detectives just forget how to count?”

“Dick's not dirty.”

“He took the bag, probably sold it or planted it on someone else or _something_! He knew the raid was a set up! He drove down there with a known criminal and let Winston fucking De Caro get away! All the evidence points to him being dirty. How am I supposed to trust him?”

“I'm not asking you to trust him, I'm asking you to trust _me_!” James Gordon yelled back. “How long have we known each other?”

“Jim... I'm not calling you corrupt-”

“You know I'm not, we came up through the force together.”

“I'm not calling you corrupt but bringing up our past connection in the hope that I'll do you a favour is what a dirty cop would do. If I'm to be an honest cop, I can't bend the rules at my convenience. And I can't ignore that you're apparently besties with his father. James, I can't just take your word that Grayson is good when I have so much evidence telling me he's not.”

“There's information that you don't have to see the bigger picture-”

“Then give me the information! Let me see the big picture! Who is he Jim?!” Montoya pleaded.

Jim sighed, “I can't tell you that-”

“Then my hands are tied-”

“Renee, we did this whole thing together, we came up in Gotham PD together-”

“And you made a mockery of the force by working with vigilantes and criminals!”

“If we were ever friends please, just trust me about Dick. He's not a dirty cop.”

Montoya hung up. She didn't want to pursue Grayson like a criminal, she'd hoped Jim – James – Commissioner Gordon would give her some information so she could see what he saw but she had no luck and he had been no help. Her office was basically sound proof, even when she yelled the sound was muffled. It meant people knew she was yelling but no one knew what she was saying so she wasn't surprised when she looked up and saw the whole precinct staring at her. They had all heard the news, they could guess what the call was about. Especially when she saw the guys from Internal Affairs standing in the bull pen watching her. She straightened up, mildly embarrassed they had witnessed that, having to tell one of her oldest friends that she didn't trust him had been emotionally draining, but she was the Captain, she didn't have time to be drained; so she fixed her blazer, took a deep breath and invited them into her office with a polite smile.

 

 

 


	24. Catch 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this was chapter 22 so the title was a pun on them being caught in the 22nd chapter. Now it makes no sense but whatever.

******EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Somewhere in Star City, USA**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

Dick slumped to the ground “This whole thing was a set up. He set me up Shawn.”

“We don't have time to feel miserable. We all knew the cops were dirty.”

“Yeah but I thought I knew which _ones_ were dirty! I _**trusted**_ Matt! And some of the stuff he said... it might even implicate Alexis or Amy, I trusted them even more. I thought I knew who my friends were and who my enemies were and now I can't even trust my own judgement.”

“Dick, first can we find Winston and bring him in, and get some kind of evidence that it was Matt who did all this, who almost sent everyone to their deaths, and _then_ can you have your identity crisis. I don't mean to be dismissive but if we don't find something soon then we're either wanted criminals on the run or we're in jail. I can't go to jail again, especially for something I didn't do.”

He inhaled deeply, “You're right. We need to track down the De Caros. First things first, we need to dump our phones and get burners.” He grabbed his phone, took out the SIM and threw it in one direction and the phone in the other and then did the same to Shawn's phone.

“What now?”

“We need to find a motel or something were we can lay low and plan.”

“We can't use our credit cards.”

“I have some cash, it should be enough for a room.”

“Okay, I passed a motel on the way over here.” She led them to Star Motel, it wasn't nice by any stretch of the word but it would do.

“Shawn, your hair is very noticeable.”

“And my clothes aren't?” Shane asked, eyebrow raised, as she gestured down to her electric blue leotard.

“The guy at the front desk thinks we're either strippers or a couple getting into some cop-criminal roleplay fantasy, so I think we're good until he figures out there's a BOLO out on us.”

“Why would he know?” Shawn asked, confused as to how a motel front desk guy would know which criminals to look for.

If we think someone's skipping town we check stations and airports, if we think someone's laying low we check motels.”

“So someone's gonna come knocking eventually.”

“Yep. Where are your actual clothes?”

“In my backpack.”

“Great, change into them, go to the shops buy me some clothes, a brunette wig and get some food too. I'll start planning our next moves.”

 

– – – – – – – – – – – –

 

By the time Shawn had left and come back with a couple packs of instant ramen and some clothes for Dick who was still in his uniform, Dick had a basic outline of their goals.

“We need to prove Stewart is lying about us and is dirty himself, possibly prove that Sihg is too; we need to figure out who specifically murdered Sammy Dexton over in 'Haven and we need to track down Winston and arrest him. Winston is Star City through and through so it's unlikely he'll leave but if he does the cops probably have a BOLO out at any exit points, it would be hard for Matt to interfere with that, that's city wide.”

“Okay so how do we do all this stuff without any back up and whilst trying to lay low?” She asked as she looked into the mirror and tried to fit her teal hair underneath the cheap wig she'd bought.

“I'm...not sure.”

Suddenly the door slammed open and the two jumped back, “Maybe I can help.” Dick looked up in shock, reaching for his gun and then he saw Red Arrow standing at the door.

“Um...”

“Word on the street is you're dirty.”

“I swear to you that I'm not.” Dick replied, his hand was still on his gun but he hadn't had time to draw it.

“And I should believe you why?” Dick looked over at Shawn because how was he supposed to prove that he wasn't? He was at a loss. Red Arrow raised his bow, aiming the tip of his arrow at Dick “Nothing to say?” He pulled the string taught.

“Wait, don't shoot!”

 


	25. -2 hrs, +2 hrs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good, you know who I am this makes this whole thing a lot easier.” Red Arrow said to Jamie Blake, arrow aimed at his face.
> 
> Rashida, his girlfriend, gulped in fear, “Is he in trouble?”
> 
> Roy gave her a charming smile, that worked even though the red domino mask obscuring his eyes “Quite the apposite ma'am, I actually need his help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set an hour or two before the raid so Dick and Shawn are probably already on the road to Star City at this point.
> 
> PS There's some Hindi in here, two words to be exact. I got this information off of google translate for the purposes of that one joke so it's most likely wrong, if anyone knows the correct version feel free to put it in the comments.

**EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Jamie Blake's Apartment, Blüdhaven**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

Roy was forever thankful that the League had been nice enough to allow him access to the Zeta beams. When he had to drive cross country to keep up appearances it was the absolute worst, granted this was hardly cross country it was only a 2 hour drive across state lines from Star to 'Haven but that was 2 hours he wasn't doing his job, although it was hardly a job when you didn't get paid. The Justice League had a UN budget and official salaries (although Batman and Green Lantern tended to give theirs back or invest it in the League) but Roy – sorry Red Arrow – had left the League a long time ago, or rather he'd never been a part of it because they'd tried to shove him in some watered down version of the League and than Kaldur and Wally had tried to start a loser kid League club with Connor which had failed right after they'd recruited in M'gann. Since Megan and Connor didn't have actual homes they still hung around the cave together, last he heard they were dating or some shit, but Kaldur had become more invested in his studies and duties in Atlantis and Wally was working on his life over in Central City.

Anyway Roy was thankful for Zeta Beams because he was in Blüdhaven and outside Jamie Blake's apartment in a flash (he really hated Barry for ruining that phrase for him). Canary had taught him the basics in intimidation, interrogation and infiltration which had proven him useful over the years, he'd since built on her knowledge to suit himself but he still used her favourite tactic every now and then, what could he say? It was effective. He slowly and silently jimmied open a window in the bedroom and climbed through. For a cop in 'Haven his security was terrible, it wasn't even locked. Next he slid open the door, enough for him to slip through and tiptoed down the corridor to the kitchen where he knew Jamie was eating. He looked ridiculous right now, but it would be totally bad ass when he appeared out of nowhere and Jamie freaked out. When Roy got a glimpse into the kitchen he saw he was sitting and chatting with his girlfriend Rashida Jones. He'd done some research into this dude, apparently he only dated Asians, not as a rule, just something Roy'd noticed flicking through his Facebook. Jones was half Indian on her mother's side, he'd done some research into her too, her main instagram was pretty basic but she also had an anonymous Tumblr Blog called 'Shit White People Say To Asians' which Roy now followed because it was fucking hilarious (and also so he didn't say that shit to Asians). “Officer Jamie Blake.” He greeted, in a deep voice, much deeper than his actual voice.

Jamie and Rashida both jumped, Jamie reaching for the gun that was still in it's holster and slung over the back of his chair, which was probably not what he was supposed to do since anyone could grab that, and pointed it at the intruder “Red Arrow!” he seemed shocked when he recognised the vigilante. His gun lowered but not all the way, now instead of hitting him in centre mass he was more likely to hit Roy's knees which was very telling. Why did Blake think Roy was there? What had he done.

“Good, you know who I am this makes this whole thing a lot easier.”

Rashida gulped “Is he in trouble?”

Roy gave her a charming smile, that worked even though the red domino mask obscuring his eyes “Quite the apposite ma'am, I actually need his help. Could you give us a minute, it has to do with a case.”

Rashida looked a little miffed at being told to leave the dinner table but she did so with only a roll of her eyes and a quite mutter of “Kutiya.” (कुतिया)

Don't ask how Roy knew but he did know he'd just been called a bitch in Hindi, it was one of the few words he did know. He decided to freak her out by speaking the only other Hindi phrase he knew back at her. “That's dusht to you.” (दुष्ट) Someone had told him it had the same effect as 'son of a bitch' so Roy really hoped they hadn't been lying. It appeared his Indian Tinder hook up _hadn't_ been lying because Rashida then cursed him out in English and left with the last word.

Roy laughed “I like her.”

“Yeah, me too.” Jamie smiled after her. Yep, the dude was in love that much was clear. Had Roy been a lesser man (or a more morally grey vigilante) he would have used that information somehow.

“What do you know about Retro?”

“I don't know much man, I got taken off the case. Or rather I was never on the case.”

Roy frowned at that “Yeah I was confused by that, I've been doing some reading on you, you and Milano have worked every case together until this one, Montoya specifically pulled you from this one. It's odd.”

“From what I know, it's a pretty high profile case. There was a time in my career where she couldn't trust me, I- I've had some time to think about it and I just think she doesn't want to risk me betraying her trust again.”

“So why did she take D-Grayson off the case.” He'd called everyone else by their surnames so far, like he was Damian fucking Wayne, if he slipped and Called Officer Richard Grayson, a dude _Red Arrow_ didn't know, 'Dick'; it might get suspicious.

“Well he was grumbling to everyone it was about his injured arm, apparently Captain wants everyone on their A Game for the case and Dick wasn't.”

“So it had nothing to do with lack of trust?”

“Pft, not likely. They got off to a rocky start but Grayson, Rohrbach, Milano, Collins and Watney are the most trust worthy cops at our precinct.”

“And where are they all now.”

“None of them were in the office so I assume they're going in for the raid. Except Grayson.”

“Today?”

“I mean it could be a coincidence, I wasn't given that information.”

“We need to get back to Star City.”

“Why? What?”

“Word on the street is the Italian gang are setting a trap for some cops. This morning I tagged Officer Rohrbach and the others entering Star. It's gotta be the same event.”

Jamie's eyes widened “We gotta warn them! Alexis could die!”

Red Arrow nodded in agreement, “I'll zeta over there ASAP.” He clicked a couple things into his watch computer and waited for it to load only for it to return as a red error message “What?” He frowned when a symbol that looked all to similar to the Youtube buffer symbol popped up and refreshed it, “What the fuck?”

“What?” Jamie asked leaning in to look at Roy's screen, worried for his partner.

Roy pulled it away from his eye line, he didn't trust this guy that much to have him looking at his Justice League tech, “It seems the zeta beam isn't working.”

“The zeta beam? Like the teleporter?”

“Yep. Looks like I'm going to have to drive.” Roy sighed, reaching into his pocket for his keys, thankfully last time he was in town he'd made sure he had a back up 'Arrow Cave' in 'Haven so he also had a set of wheels in the city which he called to him remotely.

“But it's two hours away! By the time we get there they might already be dead!”

“First off who said anything about 'we' and second off, then _I_ better get going then.”

“There's no way in hell you're going without me! Alexis is my partner and she's in danger and I have to help her!”

Roy studied this guy, Montoya clearly didn't trust him but he knew better than anyone that just because the top brass didn't trust you, didn't mean you were untrustworthy, he also knew how a couple of years could change people, the dude hadn't done anything flag-raising in a while. Roy hadn't always been trusted by the League, there'd been a time where they had been actively trying to arrest him, he'd laid low and in his civilian form he'd met Jade and he'd remembered why he'd even become a hero in the first place. Maybe the lady laying low in the next room pretending not to eavesdrop did the same thing for him, maybe he realised all by himself, for whatever reason Roy had a feeling that he'd changed and the feeling was so strong he was willing to bet his best friend's life along with the lives of the other officer on it. “Fine. But you do what I say. I'm in charge here.”

“Understood.”

“Grab your gun. Leave your badge. I've heard your boss doesn't like vigilantes all too much.”

Jamie did as he was instructed to do, holstering his gun and strapping the holster to his hip and leaving his badge on the table “Yeah, she's a Gothamite. She's got to be the only person who doesn't Black Canary or Batwoman.”

“You know Canary spends way more time in Star City than in Gotham.” Roy rolled his eyes. Why did everyone think Dinah was a Gotham-based hero when she was constantly partnering with the Green Arrow?

Jamie laughed “You sound exactly like Grayson.”

“It's the one thing Gothamites and Starians can agree on.”

“Pft, Starians?” Jamie repeated, mockingly.

“It's no worse than Blüdhavener.” Roy shot back.

“Touché. Let's go.”

 


	26. 2 cops, 1 criminal & A Vigilante Walk Into A...

******EARTH-25, Main Timeline**

**LOCATION: Star Motel, Star City**

**DATE: 09/05/2018**

 

“Wait! Don't shoot! I don't know what I can say to make you believe me but I swear to you I'm not dirty. I didn't do this, I'm being framed!”

The scarlet archer looked off to the side as someone spoke. He couldn't hear what was being said but the voice sounded really familiar. Whatever the guy said seemed to be the right thing because Red Arrow lowered his bow “Okay, I trust you. Now we need to find Winston De Caro.” He stepped into the room and ushered in whoever the mysterious voice had been. Roy hadn't known what to think when he'd gotten wind that Dick was being accused of this. He'd known Dick for so long that he wondered if he was too close to the situation to really be able to tell if Dick had gone dirty - never mind that he had no real reason to, he didn't need money - but Roy knew what it was like to be so rich you just got bored and in such a bad place and did whatever to get an adrenaline rush even if it was wrong, he also knew that he and Dick didn't see each other i person that often and Dick could be doing God knows what in 'Haven without Roy even knowing. That's why he pointed his bow at Dick. He wished he could apologise, wished he could tell Dick and assure him that he would never never think he'd betrayed the force like this but he couldn't because this wasn't Roy Harper pointing his arrows at Dick, this was Red Arrow. God Damn Black Canary and her secret identities.

“I only came to find Alexis.”

“Jamie?” Dick exclaimed as the officer stepped into the light in front of the door.

“Grayson. Is Alexis alright?”

“Yeah, everyone's fine, I managed to drop in and hold up the slaughter but Winston escaped, maybe a few others did too, and everyone thinks I'm dirty.”

“I trust that you're not.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“I know what it's like when you're not trusted.”

Dick winced, the only reason Jamie Blake hadn't been on this case with Alexis was because the Captain hadn't trusted him and Rohrbach and Grayson had agreed “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“It's fine. I get it. All that matters now is clearing your name so we can arrest the scumbag who almost got everyone killed.”

“Matt Stewart and possibly his partner Jerry Sihg.” Dick left out his suspicion of Alexis. He needed all the help he could get and if he suggested Milano was dirty, Jamie wouldn't like that at all. “A couple of Star City detectives. Stewart's daughter died because of a couple of negligent cops, they never got punished for it and he lost faith in the system. He needs money for his ex-wife and his parents, so he took up a side deal helping out the Italian mob.”

Whilst Shawn had been gone, Dick had drawn out a crime family tree to help them visualise the case.

Harper looked over it quickly “Sammy Dexton. That's the 15 year old who died?”

“Yeah.” Dick confirmed “Me and Amy got the case. I found a kilo of Retro in his locker.”

“This other kid, my source Tyrone, said Sammy got him his gig as well.” Shawn added “He was in the club today selling.”

“And one of his school friends said Sammy was terrified of whoever was giving him the product to sell.” Dick added. He turned to the scarlet vigilante “This is your city, any ideas as to who might know something about this stuff?”

Rot thought for a second. He tried to be careful about the drugs in his own club, so hopefully there was nothing there but his competitor Club Trinity was pretty well known to be a drug hotspot, it was pretty much the only reason he still had competition. “If we go to Club Trinity we might find a seller we can rough up for information.” Jamie and Dick both winced at the implications of 'rough up' and Roy sighed hyperbolically “Relax officer nice guys, I'm associated with the JL, I got oversight too. I can't just go around torturing people for information, not that I really want to either.”

“Sorry.” Dick apologised for assuming the worst, “Blüdhaven isn't really a city of vigilantes.”

Roy saw his chance and he took it, “Aren't you from Gotham? City of the Canary.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, you're the Green Arrow's ex-sidekick!”

“Ex-protége and yeah I know, I'm pulling your leg. I don't know why people think she's such a staple of Gotham when she's always here.”

Shawn sighed, exasperated, she's heard this before, “Can we forget about Canary and focus on the child murdering, drug peddlers on the loose please?”

Roy pointed finger guns at her (he'd been spending too much time around Hal and Wally) “She's right, let's go.”

 


End file.
